Pensioner rescued after drifting out to sea on mission to save wheelie bin



An 81-year-old man had to be rescued by lifeboat after he drifted out to sea on a dinghy while trying to recover a wheelie bin. The pensioner, who lives on the foreshore at Red Wharf Bay in Anglesey, North Wales, had spotted his neighbour's wheelie bin being swept out to sea as winds and high tides hit the coastline.

He jumped in a rubber dinghy and rowed out to sea, securing the bin to the boat with a rope line.

But then strong winds took hold and the dinghy was blown more than a mile off shore before the Coastguard was alerted around 12.30am on Friday.

A lifeboat crew was scrambled from Moelfre on the island to rescue the "Good Samaritan" - along with the neighbour's wheelie bin.

He was picked up suffering from mild hypothermia and treated by an ambulance called to the shore. He was not wearing a life jacket or waterproof clothing.

His dinghy was also half full of water because of the sea conditions.

The Moelfre crew then went back out to tow in the dingy and wheelie bin, which was still half full of rubbish.

Dave Massey, the Moelfre lifeboat station spokesman, said: "Everyone at the Moelfre lifeboat station wishes the gentleman a speedy recovery.

"The volunteer lifeboat crews at Moelfre have dealt with a wide variety of emergency calls over the years but I am sure that this is the first time we have been involved in towing in a wheelie bin."

The Welsh coastline was hit by some of the highest tides of the year on Friday.

Source

Lol. The nutter.

perhaps mine was swept into the Mersey....instead of being stolen by some tramp who couldn't be arsed ordering a new one ,which incidently , only took me 5 minutes to do.

If he had used a green wirral one, and taken and owl and a pussy cat...........

I had mine stolen as well, a brown one. They managed to tip the entire contents of rotting grass/leaves, etc on the garden. Thank you Grrr, cancer isn't too painful for some people.

hahaa , i liked the way you changed to Grrrr....i know what you mean.