After nearly two weeks, stolen Jaguar pulled from river

"This is my first car, hopefully my last pulling out of the French Broad river," said French Broad Riverkeeper Hartwell Carson.

A team with Asheville Greenworks and the French Broad Riverkeeper gathered Thursday at the Craven Street Bridge to pull the car out of the river.

"Eric from Greenworks called the other day, asked me he said, 'man you seen that about that car. Yea? He said you game?' I said we'll try," said Mike Bowman from Bad Company Trucking.

Tubers spotted the Jaguar on June 9, 2018. Police say they have no reported injuries related to the car going into the river.

Until now, the river levels have been too high to remove the car safely.

On Thursday, crews said the river's strong current and the distance to the vehicle make recovery efforts difficult. Crews said there is also a tree sitting on the hood of the car.

Crews suited up around 9 a.m and paddled about 400 feet across the river to the car. There, they worked to attach a cable to the car and pull it out with the help from a local towing company.

The team says they want the car out of the water because, not only is it a detriment to the river, but a hazard for paddlers and tubers.

"The car has a big, open sunroof with jagged glass on it. So, paddlers coming along or a tuber could be jammed up or hung on it," Eric Bradford, the director of operations at Asheville Greenworks, said. "But then there's all the chemicals inside of the car itself. So, we want to get that out of the river."

Asheville police say they will examine the car once it is pulled out of the water.