A submerged car and a busted, snail-covered, salt-eaten safe were uncovered this week in Portland, Maine, baffling locals.
Residents are rediscovering the overturned car that rests about 15 feet from the safe, both of which had been lost to time near the city's East End Beach.
But images captured by a local high-schooler named Tyler Dyer posted on Reddit this week showed four tires and metal pieces of the car's body sticking out of the mud and seaweed after the sand covering them shifted.
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Dyer was with a cousin when the pair stumbled on the wrecked car and noticed the safe nearby.
"I really want to know how it got there, and the story behind it," said Dyer, who reached out to police about the car.
Portland police said they are aware of the car's existence but there is no open complaint nor an investigation related to it.
While there is no known criminality connected to the car, it certainly has people who walk or run close to where the car rests talking, with some saying there is evidence of an old dumping site in the area.
"It's not surprising," said Matt Hogan, who lives in Portland and was aware of stories about the old dump.
Hogan did call the safe's proximity to the car "unusual," wondering, "why would someone throw out a safe?"
Chris Mills, another man who doesn't live far from where the car is, said the discovery was "crazy" and that he "had no idea" the car was in an area he walks through frequently.
Mills added that his wildest hypothesis about what happened to the vehicle and safe was that they were part of something "mafia-related."
Either way, if you go to the beach trying to solve this caper, you may want to bring a good pair of boots.
