Among other things, since moving to a more rural part of our state, we have uncovered these items that I assume the previous owners dumped in the woods around us:
- A 1960-ish era chainsaw
- A car battery
- Rusty pipe
- Jugs full of what looks like motor oil
- Empty plastic bottles
- A large roll of some sort of material like landscaping cloth that is overrun with moss & roots now.
- A rechargeable battery for power tools
- What appears to be the bed cover for a pickup truck
- Loads of other smaller plastic scraps
Some are actually put on display like a trophy by the police or military group that captured it.
Not entirely sure what the policy is for these sorts of things, but I do know various countries Coast Guards and Navies will use abandoned boats, lifeboats, etc. for target practice. It actually serves a couple of purposes, including live fire training. It also ensures the boat will sink, which means other boats won’t spot it, call it in, and cause an unnecessary search & rescue operation all over again for the same vessel. It’s also far safer for the crews to just sink it than it is to tow it. And if they’re busy towing one of these in then it means hours or even days where they can’t be out patrolling and responding to emergencies, etc.
Having said all that I could see them wanting to keep a sub like this since it’s demonstrating a new tactic. Investigators might want to take a close look at how it’s put together. If it wasn’t for that then I could see them just scuttling it after they recovered any drugs (not that there were any in this case).