Man Who Drowned While Retrieving Toy Boat Identified
A young man who drowned when he tried to retrieve a toy boat from a lake for a $10 reward was identified Wednesday as 20-year-old Gerado Navarette, police said.
Navarette’s family identified him, the coroner’s office said Wednesday. An autopsy is pending.
Navarette, a resident of Santa Ana, regularly biked through the paths of Centennial Regional Park, said frequent park-goers. On Monday morning, while at the park, he apparently overheard a conversation between two people about a remote-controlled boat that had floundered in the lake.
The boat’s owner, Joseph R. Smith, 31, of Los Angeles, offered a friend $10 to retrieve the boat, said Smith’s wife, Laura, after the accident. The offer was made half in jest, she added.
Police said that Navarette either overheard the offer or was told about it, and he jumped into the lake and began swimming toward the boat. As he reached it, he started to sink in the cold water.
Smith tried to help Navarette, but had to be rescued himself.
City recreation officials said this is the first drowning at the park since it was completed in 1979.
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