£120,000 Range Rover swallowed by tide while trying to rescue van stuck in sand

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What started as a mercy mission to save a friend’s stranded van ended in a £120,000 disaster when a Range Rover owner watched his own luxury SUV disappear beneath the waves.

The drama unfolded on Scarborough beach, North Yorkshire, on Friday evening when the Transit van reversed to the water’s edge to tow some jet skis.

However, it got stuck in the sand and after several failed attempts, the 4×4 was brought in to help.

Despite having sand driving mode and boasting 567 brake horsepower, that too got stuck.

Desperate to free the vehicles and with the tide rising, they even tried digging the vehicles out with a plastic spade.

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Eventually they gave up hope and left nature to take its course. Rubbing salt in their wounds, the owners could now face a battle with their insurers over any payout.

At first it seemed like a good idea to pull a stuck Transit van pulling two jet skis across the sandy beach (Picture: SWSN)

But then the Range Rover’s wheels started digging in, so the jet skis had to be removed (Picture: SWNS)

Even with the weight of the jet skis removed, it wasn’t possible to save either vehicle (Picture: SWNS)

A man can be seen reaching into the van soon after the Range Rover became stuck (Picture: SWNS)

The same man leaning on a jet ski reacts after it became clear the vehicles were not going to escape the tide (Picture: SWNS)

Mother-of-one Sammy Hellewell, 39, was on her way to a local restaurant when she saw the expensive mistake happening.

She said: ‘Some local people did go down and give them some advice to try and use the jet skis to get it out the sand, but they were quite rude to him and gave him the impression that they knew what they were doing and told them to leave them alone.

‘They had the jet skis attached to the van to begin with, which definitely didn’t help with the towing. It was absolutely stupid.

All hope gone, witnesses watched as the tide continued to lap around the vehicles (Picture: SWNS)

By 10.30pm, this was all that was visible of the vehicles which are both, more than likely, written off (Picture: SWNS)

‘I filmed it for my father-in-law, I thought he would find it hilarious with how silly they were being trying to get these cars free.’

Sammy said they managed to get both jet skis off the beach, but when she returned later on they were fully submerged.

She said: ‘The last time we headed off at 10.30pm, they were completely submerged, you could just see the aerial of the van sticking out the water.’

Recovery teams waited for low tide and used diggers to retrieve the vehicles. They will also be billing the owners of the van and Range Rover for the rescue.

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