Stab Magazine | Missing Gold Coast Swimmer Found Asleep In A Phone Booth

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Missing Gold Coast Swimmer Found Asleep In A Phone Booth

A man-hunt including helicopters and boats was called off once the boy was discovered unconscious in the outmoded communication receptacle. 

news // Feb 18, 2019
Words by stab
Reading Time: < 1 minute

Yesterday on the Gold Coast, one visiting American disappeared during a morning swim at Palm Beach.

Frantic, the American’s companions called the lifeguards to help locate their lost friend, who then called the coast guard and the police for further assistance and resources.

With boats on the water and ‘copters in the sky, the search for Seppo was on. But with Cyclone Oma sending sizable surf to the Palm Beach shores, the rescue efforts became direr and direr.  

That’s when they got a call about a man passed out in a phone booth. 

“Police went and roused the man and discovered that he was the one who went missing from the water,” Brendan Wiblen from Queensland Police said.

Police also said the man and his friends had consumed “a considerable amount of alcohol” the night before.

While the American refused to speak with local press following the incident, Stab caught up with someone at the scene to hear some insider goss.

“[Apparently he] got sucked out by a rip then was disorientated when he came back in,” our source claimed. “He was still a bit out of it [when walking out of the police station] – like confused and sleepy-looking.”

One can imagine how, after a big night of drinking and with a cyclone swell in the water, the American inebriate could have found himself in a very scary situation on this morning swim. But we must ask ourselves: how fucked up do you have to be to fall asleep in a phone booth?

Probably very. 

Stay tuned – as Oma nears the coast we’ll see many more “incidents” and perhaps even the odd tube, like this one by Brent Dorrington a couple days back:

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