NEW HAVEN — New Haven police were able to connect a submerged car in Long Island Sound to a man who was hospitalized after throwing things in a bar while naked.
Police were called to the boat launch at New Haven’s Sound School for a car underwater early Tuesday. The dive team, the city’s police and fire boat and the US Coast Guard were involved in the search operation.
Police said when the divers got to the car, which was located several hundred feet from the boat launch, the car was empty. They said there were no signs it had been involved in anything suspicious besides the fact that it was underwater.
Police were able to locate the car’s owner and his wife at Yale-New Haven Hospital, where he had been taken after West Haven police found him in Pete’s Bar & Lounge on Captain Thomas Boulevard. Police said he was naked and throwing things around. West Haven police had sent him to the hospital to recover from what was likely an over-consumption of alcohol.
When police talked to him Tuesday morning they asked him where he’d left his car, he told the officers it was at the bar.
“He was surprised to learn its fate,” said Sgt. Steven Teague. “We found his story believable.”
Police said they have not determined who took the man’s car.
“What is known, is it wasn’t its owner that tested its amphibious ability,” said Sgt. Teague.
