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Barnstable sheriff's deputies corral runaway boat

MASHPEE, Mass. — Barnstable County Sheriff’s Deputies had to corral a runaway boat in Waquoit Harbor Thursday, according to the department.

Two kids had been aboard the boat towing two kids behind them in tubes when one of them lost control of the boat and the pair on the boat were thrown overboard, the sheriff’s department said.

The boat was left running and the sheriff’s deputies described it as ‘gyrating wildly and posing an obvious hazard.’

The kids had been pulled from the water by the time Deputies Shawn Pollard and Sgt. Peter Benson swung their boat alongside the runaway Carlolina Skiff. Benson had to leap from the sheriff’s boat onto the runaway boat to turn it off.

“Great work by Sean and Peter,” says Sheriff James Cummings, “but we’ve come to expect that.”

One of the kids in the water suffered a sprained finger, but other than that, no injuries were reported.

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