Drowning Report in Doubt, So Search Ends

Rescuers stopped their search Friday morning for a person who reportedly drowned in the ocean, saying the man who reported it appeared to be fabricating the story.

Police and Marine Safety personnel launched a nearly two-hour search shortly before 9 p.m. Thursday night. But as a police helicopter and land cruiser raked the ocean with searchlights, the man’s tale about a drowning became contradictory and unconvincing, authorities said.

The man, identified by Pacifica Hospital and Huntington Beach Marine Safety officials as James Geurding, emerged from the chilly ocean waters fully clothed in the area of Pacific Coast Highway and Huntington Street.

He then walked to the beach parking lot and spoke to a man in his truck camper. Geurding, who is mute, indicated that someone was drowning, and the camper called the Fire Department.

Geurding, who is about 30 and apparently is homeless, was taken to Pacifica Community Hospital and treated for hypothermia late Thursday, according to a nursing supervisor. He was released early Friday to a friend in Santa Ana, she said.

Geurding, while being interviewed at the hospital, doubled the number of people he said were missing in the water, said Marine Safety Lt. Steve Davidson.

Authorities believe that no one is actually missing, Davidson said. Rescue officials sometimes get false reports about drowned people, said safety officer Steve Seim, “but we will respond in almost 100% of the time in some form.”

“When you are in doubt, you don’t discount anything,” he said.