1930:

After a citizen’s report, an extensive search of the area, and several hours of investigation, intrepid Vancouver Police officers solve the “Third Beach Drowning Mystery”. The culprit: a nearby bird, who also happens to be a gifted mimic.

“The police got ‘the bird’ over the Third Beach drowning mystery,” reports the Vancouver Sun. “Walking near Third Beach late Saturday night a citizen heard sounds of someone on the beach below the cliff, and then the gurgling sound of a drowning man.”

The citizen, unable to search the area in the dark, quickly called the VPD, who brought police patrol boats to scour the nearby waters. Despite finding a man’s bathing suit at the scene, nothing further was discovered; however, as the Sun reports, “while busily engaged in dragging they heard the gurgling sound as if someone was drowning. Investigation proved the sound to come from a bird in a tree at the water’s edge.”

“We are convinced there was no drowning,” the VPD states.

 

IMAGE: Third Beach, circa 1946. Image courtesy of the Vancouver Archives