HOBOKEN – A Wharton, N.J. man told police he was thrown in the Hudson River around 2 a.m. Sunday morning. He was treated for hypothermia and lacerations after emergency service teams dragged him onto land, according to a police report.
The man told police he had been visiting friends from high school for Saturday’s St. Patrick’s Day festivities in Hoboken. Two separate “Leprecon” bar crawls and numerous house parties took place that day.
Often, the river’s currents make it difficult to get someone out of the water, but the man was lucky.
The man was discovered by three passersby just south of Pier C Park on Sunday morning, the report said. The witnesses said they originally reported hearing yelling but thought nothing of it until they realized the cries were for help, and they followed them to the source.
The man was clinging to a metal pylon in the water near Pier C when police arrived on the scene, the report said.
While multiple officers climbed the locked gate onto Pier C, others went to find a bolt-cutter. Fire and ambulance services were requested, and the NYPD Harbor Patrol was notified of the situation.
Once police were able to drag the man toward the pier with a rope and lift him out of the water, he was immediately transported to Hoboken University Medical Center, where he was treated for hypothermia and cuts to his nose and arms. Once he’d warmed up a bit, he told police that he had left a waterfront bar and was walking north on Sinatra Drive when three men in black approached him and without warning threw him in the river, according to the report.
Police then struggled to find the man’s brother, girlfriend, and friends, who were staying at various Hoboken residences. Eventually the brother was found and brought to the hospital, while the whereabouts of the rest of the group were verified. – Dean DeChiaro
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