Mystery over abandoned surfing gear at redcar (From The Northern Echo)
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Mystery over abandoned surfing gear at redcar
9:37pm Monday 3rd August 2009 in Search
MYSTERY still surrounds the whereabouts of the owner of kite surfing gear found abandoned off a North-East beach ten days ago.
The large kite was brought back to shore by the crew of the Redcar RNLI lifeboat on the evening of Friday July 24, after it was discovered by a fishing boat, two-and-a-half miles out to sea.
The fishing boat alerted Humber coastguard, who then called out the two lifeboats from Redcar and the inshore lifeboat from Hartlepool.
After about 30 minutes, a coastguard patrol searching the shoreline was approached by a member of the public who reported that the kite had been seen blowing away from two people on the beach at Redcar earlier in the day.
Dave Cocks, of Redcar RNLI said: "The search was called off after the coastguard received reliable information from a member of the public that the kite had blown away from someone on the beach at Redcar.
"It's still a mystery as to who the owner is. The equipment is worth several hundreds of pounds when new, and it's hard to believe that they wouldn't want to get the kite back.
"We've had it stored at the lifeboat station but we've now handed it in to the police as lost property.
"If the owner was embarrassed to collect the kite from us, perhaps they'll be happier going to the police to recover their property."
The callout to the stray kite was the second this year for the lifeboats at Redcar.
In April, a similar incident occurred when a man from Harrogate, North Torkshire, lost control of his kite on the beach at Coatham, sparking the launch of the lifeboats.
Mr Cocks said: "One of our crew members, who was on both callouts, seems to think the kite we recovered in July is similar in colour and make to the one in April.
"Perhaps that's just a coincidence, or it could possibly be that the same person is involved in both incidents.
"All we want is for the rightful owner to get their valuable kite back."
Redcar police can be contacted on 01642-302626.
