Off-Duty Lieutenants Save Stranded Scuba Diver In FL Keys: Sheriff

FLORIDA KEYS — Two off-duty lieutenants with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office saved a stranded scuba diver while fishing in the Florida Keys.

Lieutenants David Woolf and Eric Thoresen were visiting the area with their wives, the sheriff’s office wrote in a Facebook post.

While boating six miles off shore, Woolf noticed what he thought was an injured bird about a quarter-mile away and he turned their boat in that direction.

As they got closer, Thoresen realized that it was actually a person in the water “who was in distress and drifting away from land,” the sheriff’s office said.

They learned the diver had been swept away from his boat, which was found about two miles away, by a current.

Woolf contacted the U.S. Coast Guard, which had just received a call about a lost diver, and provided coordinates for them to respond to their boat.

The diver was returned to his boat in good health.

“Call it luck, call it being vigilant even on their days off, call it whatever you want. We may just call it a miracle,” MCSO wrote. “We know our deputies are willing to go above and beyond at work as they serve Marion County and, in instances like this, we find their commitment extends to their days off… in other counties… (six) miles offshore.”