How a car ended up in the water near a Matlacha restaurant

A car seen floating down a body of water on its way to the Gulf has everyone asking how it got there.

• RELATED: Car seen floating near Matlacha restaurant

Almost every law enforcement agency in the area was at Miceli’s Restaurant on Pine Island Road on Sunday as the car with its brake lights on went down the Matlacha Pass.

We reached out to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office and they told us this SUV ended up in the canal because the brakes gave out.

The water levels were already high, so it didn’t take much for the water to get carried into the canal.

A day later, people still can’t believe it happened.

On Monday, the SUV still stands in the canal with a sliver of the trunk showing.

“Someone was fishing here, and they had backed in their vehicle over by the ramp, and for somehow and some reason, it backed up into the waterway here,” said Dave Conner, president of the Board of Directors Pine Island.

Deputies said no one was inside.

Cape Coral Police Department, alongside several other law enforcement agencies, were called in to help.

“We basically were looking at a video that we saw online, and it was a car in the water here in Matlacha behind D&D and Miceli’s,” Conner said.

It was something people in Matlacha said they wouldn’t forget anytime soon.

“No, I haven’t seen anything like that before. The lights were still on it, and the person was out of it, and I don’t even know whose vehicle it was, but he did speak with police and emergency crews,” Conner said.

The identity of the person who owns this car is unknown now.

Still, in the meantime, local officials are reminding boaters to be on the lookout for potential hazards in the water, especially until this car is removed and there is no word on when that will be.