Maine officials are trying to solve the mystery of a 1974 Camaro Z28 sitting at the bottom of Sebago Lake and it has everyone confused

An iconic Chevrolet Camaro Z28 was just discovered at the bottom of Sebago Lake in Maine, and the situation is worse than you think.

This is a fruit salad of bad news.

For starters, no one knows why it ended up there, although there are some fairly predictable theories.

But the worst part came when the car was craned out.

This Camaro is a goner

As reported by CBS 13 News, detectives from the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office retrieved a 1974 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 from the bottom of Sebago Lake in Maine.

It all started when Jason Smith, a local man and underwater explorer by trade, spotted a shadow that definitely didn’t look like a fish or something that belonged in the water.

The first thing to know is that detectives are having a hard time establishing the ‘identity’ of the car.

There was no license plate, and the VIN had rusted away.

Local ferry operators are fairly certain it did not fall off a ferry, as there is no record of such an incident in the past.

The lake freezes in winter, so that’s one theory, and then, of course, there’s the evergreen theory: fraud.

Cars are buried underwater or underground as part of tax fraud, insurance fraud, or as a result of theft, a lot more frequently than people realize.

But the really bad news is that the car is dead.

When the salvage crew pulled the Chevrolet Camaro Z28 from the lake floor, the structure crumbled completely.

Pity.

There’s usually a simple explanation

We don’t know how and why this car ended up at the bottom of the lake, and the whole ‘incident’ is still being investigated.

Having said that, history suggests the explanation behind these situations is usually quite simple.

Generally, cars buried underwater or underground are linked to a crime, especially insurance fraud.

Insurance fraud, or theft, is often mentioned, whether it’s proven or suspected.

For example, a while back, the police recovered a Ferrari Dino that had been buried underground precisely for this reason.

Obviously, concrete evidence is sometimes difficult to find, which fuels the mystery.

The most famous example is the Bugatti that was recovered from a lake in Switzerland.

The car was retrieved a few years ago after spending at least 70 years underwater, and even though no one knows exactly why, there are three theories and, yep, they all revolve around some kind of scam.