The Nancy Run Fire Company in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on Thursday posted that at 11:25 am EDT they and other “Northampton County companies were notified to assist Lehigh County Sheriff’s Department with locating a male who fled from officers and entered the Lehigh River following a foot pursuit. Companies deployed divers and water rescue personnel to the scene to begin search operations for the individual. While the search was underway, Fire 14 was alerted to assist with establishing a rehab area for personnel operating on scene. Special Operations 1442 and Utility 1441 responded to Northampton Borough to assist with the incident and support operations.”

Then about six hours later the search for the unidentified warrant subject was called off and first responders departed the scene empty-handed, per WPVI, who do not spell out why in their very brief reporting. Thus it’s easy and fun to speculate that deputies concluded it’s not worth the hassle to arrest a waterlogged corpse snagged on a sunken branch at the bottom of a river when they can just wait a few weeks until the gases generated by natural decomposition provide the buoyancy necessary to float him up to the surface and downstream along the current’s eddies and flows.

Would be nice of the deputies to at least apologize in advance to whatever poor sap fishing for trout has his leisure time interrupted by the corpse’s unexpected arrival at his chosen angling spot. Then he’s stuck having to call police to report it, asked to sit on the hood of a squad car for 90 minutes so he can tell the same story three times, sign a sworn statement testifying to the discovery, and so on while the sun dips low and his downright lovely new Johnny Morris Platinum caster sits idle.