Key West officer rescues man, Great Dane from channel waters

A Key West police officer plunged into the waters off Cow Key Channel Bridge and pulled a man and his 161-pound Great Dane to safety after a waterfront call turned into a fight to keep two lives from going under.

Officer Corey Vanderhoof was dispatched to a report of a man yelling for help near Cow Key Channel Bridge on Wednesday, May 27, and narrowed the search to the Hurricane Hole Restaurant, Bar & Marina on U.S. 1 in the Cow Key Channel area. There, police said he found a man who told him his Great Dane had fallen into the water and that he jumped in after the dog.

The man said he spent nearly 20 minutes trying to keep himself and the dog from sinking while waiting for help. Vanderhoof removed his police gear and entered the water, then swam the exhausted dog back to an officer standing at the dock before returning for the owner, who was struggling in the water and holding onto a docked boat. He brought the man back ashore, reuniting the pair after the ordeal.

The rescue landed in a place where water is never far from daily police work. The Key West Police Department describes itself as the Southernmost Police Department in the continental United States and says it protects about 25,000 full-time residents and more than two million annual visitors. In Key West, a call near a bridge, marina, and channel can move fast from routine to life-threatening, especially in the Cow Key Channel corridor between Stock Island and Key West, where boat traffic and changing conditions are part of the landscape.

Vanderhoof’s response also fit a pattern the department has highlighted before. In April 2023, he and two other officers received a Lifesaving Award after jumping into the water at Simonton Beach, breaking a car window, and pulling a driver from a sinking vehicle. That earlier rescue, like the one at Hurricane Hole, showed an officer willing to enter dangerous water immediately when seconds mattered.