Man steals rowboat, drowns 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
CHICAGO -- A 25-year-old Zion man drowned in Lake Michigan off Monroe Harbor Saturday after a stolen rowboat in which he was sitting began to take on water and sank, authorities said.
A man and a woman who couldn't swim stole a rowboat from Monroe Harbor Saturday morning and were rowing it with the back end facing front, which caused water to flood the boat, said police Marine Unit Officer John Clifford.
"He was rowing the boat from the wrong direction and water kept on splashing in and it sank," said Clifford.
Witnesses jogging in the area jumped in the water and attempted to rescue them because the victims couldn't swim, said Clifford.
Police were notified at 7:55 a.m., and when they arrived the woman had been rescued but the man was still under water and had been for 10 minutes, Clifford said.
The officer said divers from the Fire Department and the Marine Unit pulled the man out of the water and he was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
The man was pronounced dead at 8:54 a.m. at Northwestern, a Cook County medical examiner's office spokeswoman said.
The man's name was not being released as of 11:55 a.m. because family members had not been notified, the spokeswoman said.
The woman appeared to be "fine," Clifford said, though he did not know if she was taken to a hospital.
The two were not wearing life vests, he added.
An autopsy was scheduled for Sunday, the medical examiner's office spokeswoman said. Submitted on 07/19/2003
Submitted by:
Zachary Antolak
Reference:
Chicago Tribune, 7/19/2003
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