Brooklyn Skinny-Dipper Loses His Way
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
A bright idea for staying cool on a hot Saturday evening dimmed quickly for a Brooklyn resident who went skinny dipping off of a Long Island beach.
Neal Mello, 37, left his friends, his wallet, his cell phone, and his clothes on the darkening shore of Long Beach on Saturday to go swimming at about 9:20 p.m., Coast Guard officials said.
His friends panicked when the strong swimmer didn’t return after a half hour. They said he had had a few drinks.
Rescue crews from the Long Beach fire department, Nassau County Marine Police, the Coast Guard, and a Nassau County aviation unit, along with a Coast Guard helicopter, scanned the shore last night searching for the missing man.
They finally found Mr. Mello under a boardwalk near the beach yesterday morning. The only thing he had injured was his ego.
After drifting down from the spot where he had left his friends, an official said Mr. Mello had emerged from the water disoriented.
