The people rushed to the woman’s aid by jumping into the pond as the vehicle quickly began to sink.

Around 1 p.m. the woman was attempting to park her Ford Edge SUV in a spot on Linwood Circle, a cul-de-sac adjacent to the pond, when she drove over a curb and into the water, police said in a statement.

A 68-year-old Medford woman was rescued by three people Friday after she allegedly drove her vehicle into Arlington’s Spy Pond, police said.

Once back on land, the driver was taken to a hospital where she was treated for mild hypothermia, police said.


“The victim was conscious and alert when she was pulled from the water. She was cold, but otherwise unhurt,” according to police.

One of the men who rushed to save the woman was riding a bicycle on a nearby trail when he heard the sound of squealing tires and splashing water.

“As the car started to go down, I saw a woman slamming on the passenger window,” Dan Frazier, of Boxford, said at a press conference Friday night at a Marriott hotel.

“I could see her with a frantic look in her eyes,” he said.

Frazier dove into the pond. The vehicle was rapidly sinking in 40 feet of water, with the driver trapped inside.

Frazier first tried to pull the woman through an open window. When that didn’t work, the woman grabbed onto a cushion, and Frazier was able to drag her from the vehicle, he said.

“I felt like God put that [cushion] there,” he said.

About 25 yards from shore, his friend, Kenneth Chapman, who is visiting from Sydney, Australia, pulled the woman to shore.

Once on land, the two men and the woman knelt down and prayed together.

“She was saying, ‘Thank you Jesus,’” Chapman said.


A dramatic video taken by a bystander, and shared by the police department Friday, shows the vehicle in Spy Pond as it starts to disappear beneath the water’s surface.

A man can be heard saying, “They can’t get out,” before an unidentified person appears in the water, swimming toward the SUV. The person then tries to remove the occupant by opening the vehicle’s door.

Suddenly, the SUV becomes completely submerged, and the person in the water can be heard saying, “I lost her!”

Moments later, the woman appears.

“There she is! There she is!” people can be heard saying in the video.

The woman is then pulled toward the shoreline.

Globe correspondent Olivia Arnold contributed to this report.

Samantha J. Gross can be reached at samantha.gross@globe.com.