Daring Helicopter Rescues off the Sausalito Waterfront: We Have Pictures!

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Daring Helicopter Rescues off the Sausalito Waterfront: We Have Pictures!

August 24, 2009 – At 3:30 this afternoon a CHP helicopter swept low across the Sausalito waterfront, its engines deafening. Traffic on Bridgeway slowed to watch. Below the copter a small red boat was anchored in the Bay, just off the Bridgeway Promenade. Then we saw them! Two people were in the water, waving!

The boat rushed in and picked up the people in the waves, then sped off, the helicopter following.

But wait, there's more!

The helicopter returned, loud and low! The boat came back as well. Suddenly two people dove into the water… from the copter! A cable dropped from the helicopter! The first person latched on to the cable, was plucked from the water and carried away!

Our Contributing Editor Sabine Stetson captured the images above and below. To the right the initial people in the water are indicated by a white arrow.

We called Sausalito PD and they said it was some kind of drill — thanks, as always to SPD for their help.

Update: Our readers have written in to say the exercises continued after dark as well.

But we prefer the theory that undercover Sausalito Police are locked in an ongoing struggle with a ring of spies, drug smugglers and the people who stole all the Sausalito Library's copies of "Exploring Sausalito's Paths and Walkways" by Dorothy Gibson. As part of their undercover investigation they infiltrated the gang on the helicopter, then had to leap into the Bay to make an emergency escape via the boat.

Now isn't that a much better story than "It was a drill" could ever be?

We'll do some digging to find out the real story and report back. For now you can make up your own theories about what was really happening!

And if you have one of those stolen copies of the Gibson book, please return it to the Sausalito Library now, no questions asked. As these pictures show, your pursuers are closing in.