West Dundee man saved from Lake Michigan

A quick dip in Lake Michigan to celebrate a friend's birthday early Sunday turned into an escape from death for a West Dundee man and an Indiana woman when the pair were caught in thumping waves and a strong under-current on a beach in Evanston.

Evanston police plucked Jeffrey Greenberg, 44, of West Dundee and Heather Muffett, 39, of Hammond, Ind., from the water just after midnight Sunday near the Lee Street Beach. Police said Muffett was celebrating her birthday.

A neighbor heard the pair's screams for help and called 911.

Officer Matthew George, who was first on the scene within a minute of hearing the call at 11:57 p.m., said upon arriving he could hear two people screaming for help about 100 yards from shore.

"They were trapped against the metal breakwall and were getting battered by pretty big waves," said George, who estimated the waves were between 5 feet and 8 feet tall.

George said he and several other officers entered the water up to their necks and used rescue discs to reach the panicked swimmers. Other officers and civilians stood along the breakwater to illuminate the scene since visual contact with the swimmers was difficult, George said.

"I deployed a disc from about 40 yards out to get to the male and reeled him in," George said.

A second officer, Jeffrey Faison, then entered the water and threw a second disc to the woman who was about 25 yards farther out than the man, George said.

"It was a lucky toss and she got a hold of it," George said.

Though George estimated the dramatic rescue took about eight minutes, he said the swimmers were in the water for about 90 minutes.

"It sounds like she got sucked out first and they stood on a rock for a little while," George said. "When the water died down they thought they could make a break for it but then they got caught in a revolving door of waves."

Without the discs, which are a designed like a large orange Frisbee combined with a Yo-Yo, George said the police would have had to wait for rescue boats to be deployed.

"I don't know anyone who is an exceptional enough swimmer who could have gone out there," George said. "I was just doing what any of us would have done. It really was a team effort."

Greenberg and Muffett could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The swimmers were taken to Evanston Hospital and were discharged a few hours later.

Officer Mikhail Geyer was treated at the scene after ingesting a large quantity of water.

The pair was charged with a city ordinance violation for swimming on a closed beach.