Lifeboat left clutching at straws (From Darlington and Stockton Times)

Redcar lifeboat left clutching at straws

5:20pm Friday 19th October 2012 in News By Joanna Morris

A REPORT of a dead body in the sea turned out to be a bale of hay.

The Redcar RNLI lifeboat was launched on Thursday when a member of the public reported spotting what could have been a body floating in the sea.

The alarm was raised at around 4.30pm after the person saw an object in the sea, close to the entrance to the River Tees.

Dave Cocks from Redcar RNLI said: “The object they could see was some distance away and looked like it could have been a body floating on the surface.

“In response, the coastguards paged us and requested the lifeboat to go and investigate. When the crew arrived on scene the only object that matched the colour described by the first informant was a large round bale of hay.”

He added: “This was an entirely well-meant false alarm. We’d much rather send the lifeboat and discover that there’s no one in difficulties than hear later on that someone has actually drowned.

“We’ve been called out to a few unusual things in the past, but never a lump of hay before. Dare I say that we’re glad we didn’t have to bale anybody out?”

Once the lifeboat crew had completed an area search, the coastguards stood the lifeboat down.