A boat broke away from its dock Friday night and got stuck on rocks in the shallow Naugatuck River behind Whiskey’s bar at the corner of Route 34 and Derby Avenue.
At about 10:45 p.m., people walking over the Route 34 bridge spotted the empty boat and called 911, assuming the boat had crashed or that the occupants had ran aground and left it behind.
Firefighters searched along the banks of the river. Storm Ambulance and Rescue Corp’s David Lenart donned water rescue gear and a safety line and waded into the river from the Home Depot side to make sure no one was in the water and to see if there was any identification in the pleasure craft that would help authorities find the owner.
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As Lenart carefully traversed the dark, rock-filled river bed, pop music, including Journey’s “Separate Ways” and maybe something from the Black Eyed Peas, blasted from Whiskey’s, which had a pretty busy crowd Friday.
Eventually, the boat’s owner, a Derby Avenue resident, showed up at the scene and explained the vessel had simply broke away from where it was docked.