Just as a Coast Guard swimmer jumped into the icy waters off the Columbia River mouth in Oregon on Friday to rescue a man on a floundering motorboat, a set wave loomed. It was actually the Coastie’s first-ever rescue, and he was swimming toward a rescuee who had stolen the boat, and — just in case the situation wasn’t bizarre enough — who had placed a dead fish at the famed Goonies home in Astoria, Oregon.
Video from a Coast Guard helicopter shows the rescue swimmer approaching the boat as the man climbed over the transom and stood on the swim step, waiting. That’s when the wave began to rear, then broke in earnest, sending the motorboat tumbling like a puny toy.
Miraculously, both the rescue swimmer and the man were hoisted aloft by the helicopter and brought safely back to shore. Not long after, the man, who had been wanted by police — and who the Coast Guard didn’t know had stolen the boat — walked out of an Astoria hospital, scot-free. Posted By Ghost