No Cheers for Rescuer Who Took Patrol Boat

A man who took an unattended Redondo Beach Harbor Patrol boat over the weekend to rescue friends stranded in a cabin cruiser off the Palos Verdes Peninsula has escaped criminal charges, but authorities are hesitant to label him a hero.

“It was a choice between my friends’ lives and going to jail--no choice at all,” said James Gingrich, who was arrested and jailed after the Saturday evening rescue.

Gingrich, 39, a Manhattan Beach property manager, was on a weekend boat trip with four friends off the peninsula’s rocky coast when the power died on their 25-foot cruiser, knocking out both the engine and the radio.

After more than 15 boats ignored their frantic shouts and motioning, the group flagged down a small speedboat, whose driver ferried Gingrich and his girlfriend, Doris Glommen, to King Harbor at about 6 p.m.

The couple searched King Harbor for a craft that could tow their friends and the disabled boat to safety.

The Harbor Patrol office was empty, Gingrich said, and a telephone in the area didn’t work. No private boat owners would help, he added, though he offered to pay them.

After about an hour, Gingrich spotted the Harbor Patrol boat docked nearby.

He explained Thursday that he had to act fast; it was getting dark and foggy and he feared that his friends’ boat would be nearing the rocks soon.

“I knew I was going to have some trouble,” he said. “I felt like I was going to be a hero after a little explaining. But as it’s turned out, I haven’t gotten the key to the city.”

When Gingrich returned to shore with his friend’s craft safely in tow, he faced angry Harbor Patrol officers who had returned from a dinner break and from helping at a nearby traffic accident. The officers arrested Gingrich for grand theft and took him to the Redondo Beach jail. A friend paid $500 to bail him out the next day.

Harbor Patrol officers wanted Gingrich to be prosecuted, but Redondo Beach Police Lt. John Nelson said Thursday that he had decided to drop all charges because Gingrich had no criminal intent, one of the conditions of grand theft.

“I don’t condone the taking of the (boat), but I do recognize what he was doing was for humanitarian purposes,” Nelson said. “His actions did ultimately bring these people to safety.”

Gingrich’s attorney, Jim Hawkins, praised the Police Department’s “common-sense” resolution of the case.

What surprised him most, Hawkins said, is that so many boaters passed the stranded craft without helping.

“I don’t know if nobody spotted the boat or if people have just become as aloof on the water as they are on the streets,” he said.

Nelson declined to praise Gingrich’s handling of the rescue.

“I wouldn’t want to consider him a hero for taking an official Harbor Patrol vessel,” Nelson said. “He did a good deed and he did something wrong. In this case, he crossed out the bad by doing something good.”

Gingrich said he really had little choice and would do the same thing again if he had to.

“But next time,” he said, “I’d leave my driver’s license behind and a note.”