UPDATED SUNDAY: Mason City man drives car into Clear Lake; officer suffers hypothermia

CLEAR LAKE – At 3:29 am early Saturday morning, Clear Lake Police received a call reporting a car had gone in to the lake at the south end of 5th Avenue North. Officer Eric Hythecker who was the first officer on the scene could not see if there were occupants in the car, so he shed his gun belt and went into the water. After making entry into the car he determined that it was unoccupied.

Officers called for a tow truck and had the car pulled from the water. Officer Hythecker was treated by Clear Lake Ambulance Attendants for hypothermia. After warming up he returned to duty.

At 4:08 am 43 year old Bradly Moorehead of Mason City walked into the Clear Lake Police Department to report that he had driven his car into the lake. Moorehead stated that he was doing something on his phone and had been distracted from watching the road. The incident is still under investigation.

UPDATE (Sunday, April 21, 2013):

We at Happy Trails got the call at 3:54am on 4/20/13. When we got on scene, there were a few officers and the FD there, we backed into place and put our winch to free pull. The CLFD dive team in cold water gear took our hooks out about 100 feet or so into the lake and hooked to the front passenger side of the car (a 2012 Chevy Malibu). We pulled the car to shore and allowed it to drain before fully loading it onto our truck. After leaving the scene we took the car to CLPD to be inventoried. Then the car was taken to our impound lot until the insurance company decides what to do with it. The driver or the car was said to be alone and walked himself out of the lake and to the CLPD to receive help. Later in the day the driver returned to us to get some personal effects from the car.