On the night of June 20, 2016, Justin Stahmer, 39, from Newport News, Virginia, was on his boat, floating several miles northeast of Cape Henry on the Chesapeake. He picked up his VHF and made a “Man Overboard” call on Channel 16. Fortunately for the rest of us, the Coast Guard takes these calls very seriously, and it immediately scrambled a 45-foot rescue boat, an 87-foot cutter and a Sikorsky helicopter to search for the missing person.
For 45 minutes the Coast Guard tried to get back in touch with Stahmer but he didn’t respond. When they finally found his boat, he was indeed alone. He had been alone all the time. He had been drinking and he said he called the Coast Guard because he had run out of gas. He also became belligerent when Coast Guardsmen boarded his boat, and later threatened and tried to kick one of them.
A jury in Norfolk just sentenced Stahmer to four years in prison for making the false distress call and ordered him to pay $56,7094 in restitution. Read more:
https://pilotonline.com/news/local/crime/article_63af0e23-9068-5628-869a-f3ee9a103631.html
