Photo by kconnors via morgueFile.com
Emergency vehicles and a helicopter were dispatched to Montgomery Lake within the last hour. Scanner transmissions suggest that the owner of a loose boat was located and there was no need for further searching. About 12:15 p.m. vehicles were returning.
We’ll give the fire department a call and post some more info as it becomes available.
Update:I talked to Salem Fire/Rescue Chief Mike Slover and here’s what happened:
The department got a report of an empty boat on Lake Montgomery. The caller said they had seen someone fishing, but when they looked back, there was just an empty boat.
Fire department personnel responded and were able to figure out the fisherman seen on the lake had in fact made it in his boat to shore. But there was still an empty jonboat with a personal flotation device and fishing tackle in it floating on the lake. The department got the registration off the boat and was able to contact the household of the owner, who said the boat wasn’t being used and probably had just come untied at the dock.
Meanwhile, personnel with the Law Enforcement Aviation Coalition helicopter Air-One, which is housed at the Kenosha Airport, had heard the call on the scanner and offered to do an aerial search. Slover said Salem took them up on it to be sure they were not missing anything.
“When do you feel comfortable quitting a search?” Slover said.
The helicopter did see something from the air that they could not identify. It turned out to be a log, Slover said.
Satisfied that no one was missing, the department called off the search after about an hour on the scene, Slover said.
