Man OK After Disappearing In Fox Lake
UPDATED: 6/23/2011 2:20 p.m.
FOX LAKE, Ill. (CBS) -- A man who was feared to have drowned is OK and apparently didn't notify authorities that he had gotten out of the water after disappearing in a northwest suburban lake Wednesday night.
The Fox Lake Fire Dept. was notified about 1 p.m. that the man was OK, after fire crews spent five or six hours Wednesday night and about the same amount of time Thursday morning searching for him in the lake, according to department spokeswoman Alexis Wittlieb.
The man involved contacted an unidentified person about 7 a.m. Thursday of his whereabouts, but no one told the fire department until several hours later, she said.
Fire crews returned to the station about 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Wittlieb said.
As WBBM Newsradio 780's Mike Krauser reports, Fox Lake Fire Department battalion chief Ed Lesher says a resident whose home backs up to the lake heard a man yelling for help off their pier at about 10:45 p.m. Wednesday.
That person went to investigate and saw a man holding onto a paddleboat in about 25 to 50 feet off the pier, and called 911.
The man in the water started swimming toward the center of the lake and then was out of sight.
