An abandoned motorboat and a stray dog made for a curious two hours for search and rescue personnel along Park Point Friday night.
In the end, a man thought to be missing was found and all was well.
Duluth police and the St. Louis County Sheriff's Office received a call just before 7 p.m. about a boat beached on the shore of Lake Superior near a busy Pavilion Park on Park Point. A dog wearing a harness was also found at the site.
Police tracked the boat registration numbers to a Duluth-area couple who said their 40-year-old son, visiting from Colorado, had taken the boat out from a launch on the bay side of the point.
Rescue boats scanned the water and a Coast Guard helicopter was called in with the fears that the man had gone overboard. Duluth firefighters stood watch as well. Adding to the curiosity were items like a gas container, a cooler, gym bag and life jacket neatly placed on the beach near the boat. The boat motor had also been raised and water was found in the boat.
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Police searched up and down the beach and in the woods between the lake and Minnesota Avenue. The pavilion area was crowded with volleyball players, beach walkers and a large wedding celebration in the beach house.
The parents reached the beach just after 8 p.m. and word spread that the boater had been seen leaving the area in his pickup. There was relief but no confirmation that the man was OK.
Then a police call came in from the Lafayette Square area on 31st Street that there had been a man found along the beach asking about a missing dog and saying his boat had sunk.
With the parents still waiting near the boat with police, a call finally came in just before 9 p.m. that a police officer found the man near 25th Street. Police called the helicopter from Michigan off and the rescue boats scattered.
The man was driven by police to meet his parents outside of the pavilion parking lot and said he'd been walking along the beach for six hours looking for his dog.
When he saw the search and rescue people leaving the scene, the shirtless man was obviously confused but happy to see his dog, Lucy.
"This is all for me?" he asked the officers.
Police told him the boat couldn't be towed from the beach Friday night because of the water coming into it but he would need to find a way to get it off immediately. The man and his parents huddled and tried to figure out how to get the boat home.
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