SILVERHILL, Ala. — Just a few hundred yards up stream from the laughing and splashing kids cooling off in the water at Bohemian Park on County Road 48, there was something unusual in the water — a disabled white 1991 Jeep Cherokee Laredo.

The Jeep was upstream from the bridge where County Road 48 crosses the water, and was not immediately visible from the road.

However, youngsters taking advantage of the cool swimming spot had spotted the vehicle and occasional convoys of kids waded through the rushing water to inspect the wreck. A reporter at the scene Monday did not see any gas or oil slicks in the water.

Looking at the vehicle, the doors were taken off, the tailgate door rested in the back of the vehicle and the windshield had been scarred by blows. Water from a Fish River tributary flowed through the passenger cabin of the vehicle, just under the front seats.

“It went into the water Saturday,” said a man who identified himself as Eugene Stinson, who said he was the vehicle’s owner. Stinson and his son, Jonathan, were trying to connect a portable winch to a battery to pull the vehicle out of the waterway.

“Some kids were driving it, and wanted to clean up along here,” the elder Stinson said, explaining the youngsters had brought the Jeep into the stream to make the cleanup job easier. The vehicle got stuck.

“The police have given me until tomorrow (Tuesday) to move it,” Stinson said.

Calling to a couple that had come up to inspect the wreck, Stinson asked, “Can you bring your winch over, too?”