1. While working at the Coast Guard Station in Michigan City, I got a phone call from some guy that was all upset about the plan for the new section of County road that was going to cut right near his house. Confused, I asked him if he knew he was talking to the Coast Guard Station. To that he said, "Of course I know!" I asked him what he expected us to do about his problem and he said "Well, you are part of the Department of Transportation aren't you?" : ) Gads, the power we must have!
2. We recieved a call once from this old lady that started off talking about this owl that always sat in this one tree in her yard. She rambled on about how it would hoot and keep her up at night, but she seemed to like it anyway. Asking her what this had to do with the Coast Guard, she explained that the owl had died and now was laying under the tree it always sat on. She wanted us to come and get it out of her yard. When we explained that we didn't do that, she huffed and said that the Fire Department said that we did! Gee, thanks guys!
3. One evening about 10:00pm, as a Search and Rescue Controller at Group Detroit, I received a call from a woman at that was calm on the phone, but one could tell that she was trying to maintain control. She was calling because her boyfriend was overdue from a boating trip. She told me that he, her 8-year-old son, and a coworker were just launching the boat they just bought and transferring it to the local marina to its new slip. He had called her around noon and said to hold lunch, it should only be about an hour. We started looking for them and issued a broadcast with their description. About 11:15pm, I was calling her back to give her an update and he returned home while we were on the phone. They were safe and sound and confused as to why she was upset. It seems the weather was a bit too windy
to launch and go boating on the U.S. side of Lake St Clair, so they drove over to the Canadian side to give the boat its "test run." Then they just happened to have a couple of fishing poles with them, so they thought, why not?!? Why didn't they call?? Well they were just going to be "gone for a little bit" and didn't think she would miss them.
4. There was the case where a new wife called reporting her husband of less then 8 months overdue from a fishing trip. They had come to this area on vacation and hubby hooked up with an old coworker, Bob. Seems that no one else knew Bob, but had some vague recollection of him. We search for 2 days for Bob and her husband, although we had no idea what Bob's boat looked like
or even what part of Lake Erie they were fishing in. On the evening of the second day, Hubby came home. It appears that he met up with Bob but then blew him off to go visit some lady in Canada! I guess the Honeymoon is over now!
5. I had a real good case with funny elements in it. It was after 2:00am when we received the phone call from a guy. He had just swum in from a capsized Hobicat. He had left his two female friends with the boat. The seas were 3 ft and choppy. I launched the 22ft rescue boat and flew down to the area. We launched off of several waves, full air under the hull. What a great rescue ride!! Once in the area, we throttled down and swung the spotlight around. BING! There they were, life jackets reflecting back at my light. We motored over to them and lifted the first one out, a 24-year-old thin pretty woman in a short sundress. She was grateful, but started acting odd, pulling at her dress hem. While we were attending to her friend, she sheepishly stated " I lost my panties in the waves," which I had noticed,
but was not really the first thing on my mind. We were having trouble getting a grip on her heavyset friend that was still in the water. After a couple of attempts to maintain her modesty, she said it best when she declared, "Just grab my fat ass and pull me out!" So, we did and everyone was safe.
6. Calumet Harbor, Chicago has many draws to the lake. One day we received a call from a man stating he was a doctor and he knew it sounded crazy, but he had to report what he saw. He then described, in great detail, his sighting of a sea monster in Lake Michigan just off Indiana Harbor. It had a large rounded black back and a small head on a slender neck. It bobbed on the
surface for a short while, looked around and then dove down disappearing. He swears he saw it with his buddy wanted us to be aware of it. I am sure that the airing of the TV show on Mythical Creatures and Legends the night before had nothing to do with it.
