Police investigate Jet Ski found adrift in Reynolds Channel

The Nassau County Police Department’s Marine Bureau and the U.S. Coast Guard conducted a search of Reynolds Channel for a possible missing person after police said a Jet Ski was found adrift in the water on Wednesday.

Police said that they received an emergency call at 6:30 a.m., after a commuter on the Long Island Rail Road spotted the unoccupied watercraft in the bay by the Wreck Lead Bridge and contacted police.

“A guy was going to work on the LIRR and he saw a Jet Ski going around in a circles,” said Lt. Eric Cregeen, a spokesman for the Long Beach Police Department.

LBPD contacted Nassau County police, Cregeen said, adding that the county’s marine unit located and identified the owner of the vehicle after checking the watercraft’s registration. The owner’s name was not released, but police said he has been accounted for and is OK. Cregeen said that the owner is a Long Beach resident who docked the vehicle at a marina in Island Park and was at home at the time of the incident.

“The marine bureau went out and located the registered owner,” said Officer James Imperiale, a spokesman for Nassau County police, who added that police were actively searching to make sure no one was in the water.

Police ended the search hours later, and told the Herald that they are no longer searching for anyone in the water.

“It’s looking like it was stolen and just ditched, that’s what it’s looking like right now, but they’re still looking into that,” Imperiale said.

Cregeen said that the ignition on the vehicle was “popped” and may have been tampered with, and that police are trying to determine how the Jet Ski was set adrift and whether it was stolen.

“The last thing [the owner] knows is that he had the Jet Ski docked in Island Park and it was OK when he left it,” Cregeen said.