An unconscious driver survived in a sinking car when a lobsterman entered the water off Portland, Maine, in diving gear for the rescue.
Just after noon Thursday, the Portland Police Department got word of an occupied car going into the water off a boat launch near East End Beach.
The driver is a 33-year-old whose name and gender were not specified by police, although the rescuer called the driver a man. The car was reported stolen from South Portland earlier Thursday, Portland police wrote on Facebook.
In addition to Portland fire and police department personnel who forced the 2015 red Ford Mustang open underwater, a lobsterman on a nearby boat donned diving gear and went into the water to help save the driver.
“I went down and grabbed the guy and pulled him through the water. He was unresponsive when I pulled him through the window,” the lobsterman, Manny Kourinos, told WCSH-TV, a local station.
The driver was then taken to a fire department boat, and emergency responders took the person to a hospital, according to Portland police.
The South Portland Police Department will decide whether to charge the driver with stealing the car, Portland police spokesman Brad Nadeau told the Portland Press Herald.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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