Fire crews in Peabody spent part of their Friday morning dealing with an unusual call after a pickup truck was found almost completely underwater in Browns Pond, prompting dive teams to head into the chilly reservoir and check it out. The call came in shortly after 7 a.m., and aerial footage from the scene showed just the truck’s roof and a slice of its front windshield poking above the surface while water-rescue crews worked several yards off the shoreline.
According to NBC Boston, the Peabody Fire Department said it was “on scene for a vehicle into the water” and had no further information to release at that time. The station’s aerial video captured what appeared to be a Peabody dive team working in tight formation around the pickup, which was nearly fully submerged.
Where It Happened
Browns Pond sits in South Peabody along Lakeshore Road, a small neighborhood reservoir ringed by homes and a park. Per AnyplaceAmerica, the pond is marked on USGS topographic maps and lies about 0.8 miles south of South Peabody. Local maps place Friday’s incident near Lakeshore Road, a residential stretch that runs directly along the water.
How Dive Teams Operate
Public safety dive teams rely on systematic search patterns, surface tenders and strict safety rules when they are called to a report of a vehicle in the water. Decisions about whether a mission is treated as a rescue or a recovery hinge on visibility, depth and diver safety. Training providers such as Dive Rescue International describe vehicle-in-water work as a coordinated search-and-recover operation that puts diver safety and careful scene documentation at the top of the list. Divers typically work alongside tow operators and law enforcement, who help stabilize and secure a vehicle before it is hauled out.
As of the early reports, officials had not released any information about possible injuries or who owns the pickup, and the department told NBC Boston it had no additional details to share. Crews stayed at the scene while investigators and recovery teams evaluated water conditions and mapped out the next steps for getting the truck out…