It remains unclear who will pay to remove this abandoned car from Waterplace Park, where it has been sitting since Sunday.

The Providence Journal / Sandor Bodo

PROVIDENCE –– Perhaps it could be a lovely planter. Or an extra-large brazier for next week’s WaterFire.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, the police said, someone drove a battered old Nissan sedan through the pedestrian tunnel under the new Waterplace Luxury Residences and then down two flights of stairs to the railing at the water’s edge in Waterplace Park.

The driver then turned left, drove over a river-spanning pedestrian bridge and tried, briefly, to negotiate the handicapped ramp at the Memorial Boulevard end, according to the police, and then backed up and abandoned the vehicle outside the condo complex.

No witnesses have come forward and, more than three days later, the police have not determined who was driving the car or what prompted the wild ride. Yet to be determined, also, are how to remove the vehicle without damaging the condo complex’s property and who will end up paying the estimated $1,000 cost.

The police said the car, bearing Pennsylvania plates, is owned by an out-of-state resident and that someone else was legitimately using it in Rhode Island. They gave no other details.

The police called Coletta’s, a local towing service, as soon as the car was discovered. On Wednesday, the company’s manager, John C. Mosesian, was still mulling how to approach the removal project.

One idea — using a crane to lift the car over a seven-foot-tall wall along Memorial Boulevard — was quickly abandoned because of the complication of power lines. Another — simply retracing the route — would require care to avoid damaging railings and steps.

That apparently wasn’t a problem for the mystery driver, who somehow managed to fly down the 22 steps without nicking the railings.

“It’s like James Bond was driving here,” Mosesian said.

amilkovi@projo.com