Featured Image Credit: Channel 5 Belize / Carlos Pinto
A man found drifting in the open sea on a makeshift raft leaves the internet wondering if he wanted to be rescued.
Wearing a sun hat and sunglasses, Carlos Pinto was in his own world, drifting across the sea when the Coast Guard patrol spotted him.
The call came in from the port authority, and within 25 minutes, the Coast Guard had reached him.
He was found drifting about 17 miles south of Belize City, in the Blue Field area, surprisingly far from shore.
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Pinto’s daughter shared that her father was fed up with island life and wanted to head home. The 57-year-old packed two buckets and two bags filled with food, gathered his personal belongings and hopped on a makeshift raft.
“This was in the Blue Field Area, some seventeen miles south of Belize City, which we found very strange. Fortunately, we had a patrol in the area which deployed from Southern Light Caye," said Rear Admiral Elton Bennett, Commandant, Belize Coast Guard.
"The patrol went into that area and found the gentleman that was drifting, and we brought him in towards Belize City. Our medics here at the headquarters checked him out did some vitals, we found him to be in fairly good health. His pressure was a bit high. We had difficulty identifying who the individual was."
As news of the rescue spread and photos surfaced showing Pinto looking surprisingly relaxed, people on social media started joking about whether it was really a rescue.
On Reddit, one person posted a few pictures of Pinto chilling on his raft with the caption: "Man rescued off Belize’s coast looks chill af".
And the comments were all in agreement.
"Alternative title : “man finally gets some time alone, interrupted by coast guard"," one user wrote.
"Rescued or interrupted?" added another while one other Reddit user chimed in: "Bro looks like he almost doesn’t want to be rescued".
Someone else replied: "With his body language, it doesn't look like he wanted to be rescued."
His daughter confirmed that Pinto is mentally sound. When he was found, he was severely dehydrated and had high blood pressure. Now, he's reportedly on the mend and recovering well whilst his family is more than thankful to have him back home.
"I was amazed, because how my dad was on that and nothing happened to him at the time," Pinto's daughter said. "It could have been worse."
