May 24, 2020 Your Neighborhood — Your News®
Month xx–xx, 2019
LOCAL
CLASSIFIEDS
PAGE 7
Dog’s missing
ashes devestates
local family BEACH RESCUE
A quick-thinking Brooklynite saved a 19-year-old who was drowning in the Coney Island waters. Photo by Todd Maisel
Hero pulls drowning woman from Coney waters
BY TODD MAISEL
A good samaritan pulled a
young woman out of the frigid Coney
Island waters after spotting
her drowning at about 4 pm on
May 13.
Brooklyn native Mike Perez
was on the beach by Ocean Parkway
when he saw the 19-year-old
Bronx girl wade into the water, he
said.
“She went into the water – she
looked like she was splashing and
playing and people were watching,”
said Perez, an artist and
bartender who is unemployed
because of the coronavirus outbreak.
“Then, I wasn’t paying attention
to her for a moment and
she was gone.”
Perez, who kite surfs and
swims at the beach and was wearing
a wetsuit, decided he had no
time to lose, he said.
“I called 911 and told them
where I was, but then I said to myself,
‘I’m wasting time, I should go
in there,’ so I told the operator I
have to go and hung up and went
in,” he said.
Perez made his way along the
rocky jetty when he spotted the
woman’s foot in the surf, grabbed
her, and started dragging her to
shore. School Safety offi cer Anthony
Baisden, on his third day
assigned to the beach, rushed out
to help Perez bring the unconscious
woman to dry land, where
they were also met by cops from
the 60th Precinct.
The woman, who police have
not identifi ed, was brought back
to life by fi rst responders and fi refi
ghters who immediately began
CPR on her after she was pulled
from the water. “She had a heartbeat,”
exclaimed one top cop.
The woman was loaded onto a
police gator and driven to a waiting
ambulance that rushed her to
Coney Island Hospital, where she
was released the following day.
Perez said he was just doing
whatever he could to help the
woman out.
“I don’t know, there really
wasn’t heroics, I was just doing
my part,” said Perez, born and
raised in Brooklyn and a Brooklyn
College alumnus. He thanked
the safety offi cer for helping
bring the unconscious woman to
shore.
The commotion comes after
Mayor Bill de Blasio threw cold
water on the idea of opening up
city beaches this summer because
of the COVID-19 pandemic — and
therefore guaranteeing that lifeguards
will not be on-duty.
“You want to walk along the
beach, or sit on the beach for a
while? Fine,” he said on May 17.
“But No swimming, no parties,
no sports, no gatherings.”
Hizzoner even threatened to
have the city’s Parks Department
seal off the entrances to the city’s
beaches if overcrowding occured.
“We’re going to give people
a chance to get it right…but if
we start to see a lot of violations
of those rules, up will come the
fences, closing off those beaches,”
he said. “No one wants that but
we’re ready to do it if that’s what it
takes to keep people safe.”
BY JESSICA PARKS
A Marine Park woman says
she is still searching for her dog’s
ashes after an animal hospital
gave them to a stranger — leaving
the elderly woman devastated.
“I am heartbroken because
I’m not getting anywhere,” said
80-year-old Fran Moran, whose
15-year-old dog, Molly, served as
her son’s companion during a fatal
battle with cancer. “They don’t
call me back. You wait and wait
and wait, and you don’t even hear
from the doctor.”
Moran says that she brought
her beloved Molly to Animal Hospital
of Brooklyn on because she
wasn’t eating, and the doctor told
her the canine had a tumor and
would have to be put down.
On March 26, she said she received
a call from the Flatbush
Avenue animal hospital saying
Molly’s remains were ready to be
picked up. But when her grandson
went in two days later he was told
they weren’t there.
“He called me from there and
he said ‘Nanny, they said they
can’t fi nd her,’” Moran recounted.
After about a week of different
excuses, Moran said that employees
began claiming that an elderly
man with “salt-and-pepper” hair
had come to pick up Molly — asking
for the dog by name. But Moran
and her family say no one they
know matches that description.
Despite that, the Moran’s still
had to pay the $600 cremation fee.
Now, the Moran family — who
reached out to police, but were
told offi cers could not investigate
because it is a civil matter — say
they just want their beloved canine’s
ashes back.
“I just thought maybe someone
took her by mistake, anything, because
mistakes happen and I understand
that,” Moran said. “It’s
just my heart isn’t complete.”
The animal hospital declined a
request for comment.
Vol. 9 No. 21