US ‘drunk driver’ swims off to escape arrest

This is an update of the story below. This story also made international news agencies also shown below.

SAN DIEGO (CNS) – A DUI suspect made a frigid, watery escape from police early Tuesday by running into the ocean and swimming away after getting pulled over in Pacific Beach.

A patrol officer stopped the 29-year-old man on suspicion of drunken driving in the 700 block of Grand Avenue shortly after 2:30 p.m., SDPD public-affairs Lt. Andra Brown said.

Immediately after pulling to a stop, the motorist jumped out of his pickup truck and sprinted to the shoreline at nearby Pacific Beach Park, leaving behind a passenger in the vehicle, Brown said.

The suspect, who was clad in jeans and a T-shirt, proceeded directly into the sea — which has been in the mid-to high 50s in recent weeks — and swam out of sight.

Lifeguards began searching the ocean and coastline for the driver with help from the U.S. Coast Guard.

Meanwhile, the man the DUI suspect left behind cooperated with officers, identifying his fugitive friend and providing them with contact telephone numbers, the lieutenant said.

Several hours later, family members called the police to report that he had gotten in touch with them, was OK and would turn himself in, according to Brown. The search-and-rescue efforts were then called off.

“We ask that he call the San Diego Police Department so we know, indeed, that he is safe,” she said in the late morning. “But that has not happened as yet.”

Police did not immediately release the suspect’s name.

Source: News 8

SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) – Lifeguards and San Diego police are looking for a man who jumped into the ocean to avoid officers.

Around 2 a.m. a San Diego police officer spotted a suspected drunk driver in Pacific Beach.

When police approached the truck the driver took off, ran down the street, and jumped in the ocean.

The man was last seen running into the water in the 600 block of Reed Street in Pacific Beach.

Lifeguards both in the water and in the air searched the area for about and hour before calling off the search.

News 8′s Jeff Zevely joins us live from the scene where that search has been called off.

Source and Video: News 8

Other Coverage:

(AFP) Los Angeles Agence France Presse
The Patch (La Mesa)
San Diego Union Tribune
News 6 San Diego
10 News San Diego

And here’s coverage about Pacific Beach in England!

A suspected drunk driver escaped arrest in California by diving into the sea and swimming off, only for his friend who he left in the car to give police officers his name and contact details.

The 28-year-old man, who was not identified, took to the waves after being pulled over in Pacific Beach, north of San Diego at around 2:30am, said San Diego Police Department (SDPD) spokesman Andra Brown said.

Dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, he jumped out of the pickup truck and sprinted to the shoreline, before jumping into the sea – where temperatures have been in the mid-to high 50s in recent weeks – and swimming out of sight.

Lifeguards began searching immediately, and were joined by a Coast Guard helicopter at daylight, as well as lifeguards on paddle boards and trucks on the sand.

San Diego Lifeguard Lt. Andy Lerum said: “When the sun came up, it was the first opportunity to go out and take a look with actual light instead of that dark, so that’s why you saw another effort by lifeguards and the Coast Guard this morning.”

Several hours later, his family called police to say he had been in touch and would give himself up to police.

Source: The Telegraph (England)