A man rescued Friday by a Coast Guard rescue swimmer near the Columbia River was wanted for a freak incident in which police said he left a dead fish in the Oregon, the home from the classic movie “The Goonies.” ‘.
Officers had been searching for the man since Wednesday, when an acquaintance alerted them to a video he posted to social media of him leaving the fish at the house and then dancing around the property, Astoria Police Chief Stacy Kelly said.
Kelly identified the man as Jericho Labonte, 35, of Victoria, British Columbia. Labonte is also wanted in British Columbia for criminal harassment, mischief and misconduct from last fall, Kelly said.
In the afternoon, the Coast Guard shared a stunning video of a rescue shot a few hours earlier, in which a rescue swimmer being cable-dropped from a helicopter swam toward a 35-foot yacht struggling with heavy surf.
As the swimmer approached the ship, a large wave slammed into it, overturning the boat and throwing a man, later identified as Labonte, into the water.
A man rescued Friday by a Coast Guard rescue swimmer near the Columbia River was wanted for a freak incident in which police said he left a dead fish in the Oregon, the home seen in the classic movie ‘The Goonies’
The swimmer, Petty Officer 1st Class Branch Walton, of Greenville, South Carolina, reached Labonte and took him to safety. The helicopter crew flew him to Coast Guard Base Astoria, where medics treated him for mild hypothermia and took him to a hospital.
The yacht’s owner, who lives in nearby Warrenton, Oregon, reported later Friday that the ship had been stolen, the police chief said.
The hospital had already released Labonte when police saw the Coast Guard’s photos and videos and realized it was the same person they said covered the security cameras at the Goonies’ house and left the dead fish on the porch.
The police were still looking for Labonte on Friday evening.
Kelly didn’t know what kind of fish it was, but said police believed it was caught on the spot because after the video started circulating, another person reported taking Labonte fishing.
“It’s been a really strange 48 hours,” Kelly said.
The mouth of the Columbia, the largest North American river that flows into the Pacific Ocean, is known as “the Graveyard of the Pacific Ocean” because of its notoriously rough seas.
Jericho Labonte, 35, of Victoria, British Columbia, was identified as the rescued man. Labonte is also wanted in British Columbia for criminal harassment, mischief and misconduct from last fall, Kelly said
As the swimmer approached the ship, a large wave slammed into it, overturning the boat and throwing a man, later identified as Labonte, into the water.
The swimmer, Petty Officer 1st Class Branch Walton, of Greenville, South Carolina, reached Labonte and took him to safety. The helicopter crew flew him to the Astoria Coast Guard Base, where medics treated him for mild hypothermia and transported him to a hospital.
The Coast Guard received the distress call from the yacht around 10 a.m. Friday while they were training nearby, Petty Officer Michael Clark said.
The mayday contained no information about the location or the specific problem, but the agency triangulated the location of the ship and nearby boat crews, and a helicopter responded.
They found that the P/C Sandpiper yacht took in water in 20-foot seas, meaning the height of a wave from the previous trough could be as high as 40 feet, Clark said.
Walton, who only recently graduated from the Coast Guard swimmer rescue program, was pulled from the helicopter by cable. Labonte climbed onto the stern and prepared to enter the water just as a huge wave slammed the craft, throwing it into the surf.
The wave hit so hard that the ship rolled completely over and floated upright.
The mouth of the Columbia, the largest North American river that flows into the Pacific Ocean, is known as “the graveyard of the Pacific Ocean” for its notoriously rough sea
The mayday contained no information about the location or the specific problem, but the agency triangulated the ship’s location and nearby boat crews, and a helicopter responded
Officers had been searching for Labonte since Wednesday, when an acquaintance alerted them to a video he posted to social media of him leaving the fish at the house and then dancing around the property, Astoria Police Chief Stacy Kelly said.
Walton said in an interview Friday that he intended to reach the man, get him into the water and hook him onto a cable attached to the helicopter. Instead, the wave hit.
“I was a little bit tossed about by the wave. When I surfaced, I noticed the boat was pretty much in ruins,” said Walton.
He directed the helicopter to take him to Labonte after seeing him in the surf a short distance away. The force of the wave had largely knocked off his life jacket, Walton said.
A Kansas City entrepreneur and self-described superfan of the 1985 cult classic bought the Oregon home made famous by the film in January.
Behman Zakeri, 37, bought the $1.65 million property in Astoria, Oregon in an effort to preserve it as a shrine to the beloved family movie.
“The reason I’m buying it is for the community,” Zakeri said. “Someone has to be the janitor, someone has to keep the monument. Someone has to keep it original and not be demonstrated.’
