Sentinel: Disney guest tells hoax story about missing buddy

[PhotoDave219]

This was on one of their blogs, Found here

A Walt Disney World guest with a little too much to drink couldn't swim across a lake this morning and when rescued by emergency personnel, he made up a story about a missing buddy, authorities said.
The Reedy Creek Fire Department and the Orange County Sheriff's Office spent nearly three hours searching the lake next to the Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa, where Mark Weathersby is staying with his family.
Capt. Steve Lang of the sheriff's office said investigators will forward charges of filing a false report against Weathersby to the Orange-Osceola State Attorney's Office.
Lang said Weathersby, who was not arrested, yelled for help about 3:30 a.m. and when he was plucked out of the water told rescuers that his friend was missing.
"He became embarrassed and told a story...about another male who also had been in the water," Lang said. "That later was determined to be not true."
The search and rescue operation lasted until about 6 a.m. and tied up valuable emergency personnel, including a sheriff's helicopter, boats and divers

 

[Trishnh]

stupid, crazy people!!:shrug:

 

[napnet]

He had too much to drink... was he swimming from PI to Saratoga? What an idiot

 

[LudwigVonDrake]

You can't make this stuff up

 

[The Mom]

Dave, wasn't there an true incident way back when? I have a vague memory of someone actually drowning in Bay Lake after drinking too much. Maybe this guy remembered that story?

Off topic, but I discovered that the far shore of lakes and ponds are a lot further than they look the hard way, when I was about 14. Fortunately, the pond was next to a road, so I was able to walk back to my starting point. :lol: (The scary part is that I was alone! It would have been at least an hour before anyone would have noticed I was missing; they would have assumed I was still sunbathing and reading on the dock at my uncle's house.)

 

[WDW Monorail]

He had too much to drink... was he swimming from PI to Saratoga? What an idiot

Must be a new thrill ride.:shrug: :lookaroun

 

[PhotoDave219]

Dave, wasn't there an true incident way back when? I have a vague memory of someone actually drowning in Bay Lake after drinking too much. Maybe this guy remembered that story?

Yeah, i've heard that one too from a few different folks, including security, who proported to actually have witnessed the recovery of said person. There's lots of stories of "life-going-wrong" at the resorts that float around; not too sure how many i believe. But i'm pretty sure some drunken tourist fell in bay lake one night and washed ashore the next morning.

 

[Tomcat47]

I remember a story that made the national news. I believe I saw it on the Today Show. It was about 5 years ago just before my wedding. A couple I believe were drinking at the Polynesian. They had a fight on the beach and the wife went back to their resort which was the Floridian. The next morning she woke up and he wasn't at the room. Security was called and the found him in the 7 Seas Lagoon between the two resorts.
That story sticks in my head because it was just before our wedding and then Disney honeymoon at the Floridian.

 

[The Mom]

I remember a story that made the national news. I believe I saw it on the Today Show. It was about 5 years ago just before my wedding. A couple I believe were drinking at the Polynesian. They had a fight on the beach and the wife went back to their resort which was the Floridian. The next morning she woke up and he wasn't at the room. Security was called and the found him in the 7 Seas Lagoon between the two resorts.
That story sticks in my head because it was just before our wedding and then Disney honeymoon at the Floridian.

That's the one. I just misremembered which lake, but thought the story said it was a MK resort.

 

[ToTBellHop]

what's with all the idiots making up stories around Downtown Disney these days? Maybe they need to water down the booze a little bit.

 

[slappy magoo]

You can't make this stuff up

Uh, isn't that the point of the story? That someone "made it up?" :lol:

On a related note, I wonder if SSR guests had their night ruined by the police sirens and choppers overhead, also thinking they had a scenic view of a accidental death (ah, Disney memories)?

 

[dismedic]

Stupid people always do stupid things!!!

I see it everyday at my job. Alcohol and little brain cells make for very stupid choices hence this one.

Again another waste of resources because of peoples bad choices.

Bad choice by a person = ruined night of a pleasant vacation for others.

 

[Monty]

There are jurisdictions that will charge people the full cost of a Search & Rescue operation that results from a false report. When I worked SAR in British Columbia, we had several false reports that resulted in searches costing hundreds of thousands of dollars by the time lost salaries of searchers, gas and food and equipment damage/maintenance were factored in. Searches are not cheap.

We never sent the bill to anyone because our jurisdiction didn't have a cost-recovery law, but I sometimes wished we could.

 

[Shoe]

I See Drunk People

Not that long ago there was a group of guys (visiting businessmen?) who went to PI and returned to their rooms that night minus one of their fellow travellers. He was found the next morning floating in the water surrounding Planet Hollywood.:dazzle:

 

[doop]

What a moron..

 

[HoW]

Must be a new thrill ride.:shrug: :lookaroun

No, he thought it was the new course for a WDW Triathlon.