Text 13617, 97 rader
Skriven 2005-06-16 13:29:36 av Alan Hess
Ärende: on the lighter(?) side
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This story had a radio talk show host cracking up when he was first
passing the details on to his listeners.  


http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.ca.rescue15jun15,1,7659804.sto
ry?coll=bal-pe-maryland
City man pulled 3 times out of Liberty Reservoir
Commandeered bass boat is sunk during rescue


By Sheridan Lyons
Sun Staff

June 15, 2005

A 39-year-old Baltimore man was pulled from the waters of Liberty
Reservoir three times yesterday, the last time after police tried to
rescue him in a commandeered bass boat that sank under his estimated 300
pounds, police and fire officials said.

During the hourlong incident, the man was first retrieved from the water
by Baltimore County officers and placed in an ambulance, but he jumped out
of the emergency vehicle on the Route 26 bridge over the reservoir
channel, where he then fell or jumped while talking to police.

Police did not identify the man.

After he was fished out for the last time, he was placed back in the
ambulance and taken to Northwest Hospital Center in Randallstown for an
emergency evaluation, said Bill Toohey, a Baltimore County police
spokesman. Neither the man nor any of his rescuers suffered any apparent
injuries.

No charges were filed, Toohey said, characterizing the case as "the edge
of tragedy."

The incident began with calls to the state police in Westminster about a
naked man in the reservoir and a call to Baltimore County police about a
possibly suicidal person who had taken a vehicle.

Baltimore County police received a call listed as an unauthorized use of a
motor vehicle yesterday morning, Toohey said, but the caller was more
"worried about [the man's] emotional state."

Meanwhile, state police at the Westminster barracks received calls about a
naked man in the waters of the Baltimore-owned reservoir at the boat ramp
off Oakland Mills Road, said Sgt. David A. Warner. About 11 a.m., he said,
Baltimore County police called state police to assist them at the bridge
over the reservoir, near the Baltimore-Carroll county line.

The Sykesville-Freedom District Fire Department responded about 11:20 a.m.
for a call about a suicidal person, said department spokesman Bill
Rehkopf. The water-rescue unit from the Gamber & Community Fire Department
also responded, as did the Carroll County sheriff's office and employees
from the state Department of Natural Resources.

Rescue boats from other counties also were called but were canceled after
Gamber successfully retrieved the Baltimore man, the fisherman whose bass
boat was commandeered, a state trooper and two Baltimore County police
officers, who were wearing life jackets.

Toohey said two Baltimore County officers saw the man the first time in
the reservoir "naked and splashing around in the shallows," and waded in
to pull him out. That's when he was first placed into the Sykesville
ambulance.

"As they began to drive ... toward the Northwest Hospital Center, he
started arguing with the paramedic," Toohey said. "The driver pulls over
to see what's going on."

The man then got out of the ambulance and went to the edge of the bridge
-- "threatening to jump," Toohey said. The two officers talked to him for
about seven minutes, and "he was facing them, with his back to the water,
when he slipped or fell or jumped."

The Gamber unit was close by, but the three police officers enlisted an
unidentified fisherman in an 18-foot bass boat that was closer, Warner
said.

The boat remained at the bottom of the reservoir after several hours of
searching for it, Toohey said. Warner said the reservoir reaches depths of
more than 100 feet.

Rehkopf said the weight of the rescued man "really compromised the
capacity of the boat. It just swamped. It sank." Fortunately, he said, the
Gamber rescue team pulled the five men out within minutes.

"It was wrapped up in about an hour," he said.

Copyright + 2005, The Baltimore Sun


Alan Hess
Pikesville, MD

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