TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Deputies say a man they found stranded on a buoy in Florida’s Tampa Bay had jumped out of his friend’s boat when its battery died and he became nervous.
Video from a Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office helicopter shows divers rescuing the man Sunday night roughly 3 miles (6 kilometers) north of Beer Can Island. The sheriff’s office tells news outlets the man didn’t know how to swim and wasn’t wearing a life jacket.
Deputies say in a statement the man’s friend had called 911 to report that he’d leapt from the boat and climbed the buoy.
Sheriff’s office spokesman Danny Alvarez tells WFLA-TV the helicopter discovered the man clinging to the buoy using a forward-looking infrared camera.
Neither man was injured. Deputies didn’t provide their names.
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Information from: WFLA-TV, http://www.wfla.com/
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