89-year-old neighbor Henry Laseke « chicagoareafire.com

This from Larry Shapiro:

Arlington Heights firefighters struck a dive box this morning for assistance after a small SUV plunged into a pond located behind townhouses in the 1500 block of Courtland Drive. The SUV which reportedly had one occupant went up a driveway, between a tree and a structure taking out the column for a 2nd story deck and the in-ground electrical box before going into the water. A resident of the complex attempted to reach the driver but was unsuccessful. Divers entered the water and attached a cable from a tow truck that winched the submerged vehicle to a point where the driver could be pulled out.

The Chicago Tribune reports:

Divers pulled a person from an SUV that plunged into a pond at an apartment complex in Arlington Heights this morning, authorities said.

The person was given CPR at the scene and taken by ambulance to a hospital, but the person’s condition was not known.

The car went into the pond in the 1500 block of Courtland Drive in the northwest suburb around 7 a.m. after striking an electrical box, according to Arlington Heights Cmdr. Michael Miljon.

The first police officer on the scene called for a dive team because the pond was too deep to find the SUV, he said.

Divers located it about in the middle of the pond and began towing it to the surface around 7:40 a.m. Four rescue workers surrounded the SUV when it was about half-way out of the water and peered inside.

One worker, dressed in a yellow suit, used a metal bar to break the driver’s side window and then reached inside. A diver in a wet suit went to the other side of the SUV and was able to pull open the door and got to the person inside.

man drowns in Arlington Heights after driving into pond

Larry Shapiro photo

The Tribune updated the article:

Rick Geiger was getting ready for work this morning when he heard an explosion next to his townhome in Arlington Heights, then what sounded like a tidal wave crashing in the pond out back.

Geiger ran out to see an SUV in the middle of the pond, his 89-year-old neighbor Henry Laseke behind the wheel.

“He was clearly shaken up. He was on his cell phone, I don’t know who he was talking to at the time, whether it was a family member or 911,” Geiger, 48, said. “I had to get him out quick because it’s going to sink, it’s deep. . .I jumped in the water, I was the first one in the water and swam out to the vehicle, tried to open up the doors, which wasn’t happening. Tried to do everything I could to get him out, get the windows out.

“I said, ‘Open the door, open the door.’ He just kept looking at me, just looking at me. This panicked look. . . He seemed frozen. It went down very fast. His look never changed. Fear. Shock.”

Police and then firefighters and divers arrived within minutes, and the SUV was towed to the surface about 45 minutes after it plunged into the pond around 7 a.m. in the 1500 block of Courtland Drive.

Four rescue workers surrounded the SUV when it was about half-way out of the water and peered inside. One worker, dressed in a yellow suit, used a metal bar to break the driver’s side window and then reached inside. A diver in a wet suit went to the other side of the SUV and was able to pull open the door and get the man out.

Laseke was dragged to the shore and placed on a stretcher while paramedics administered CPR. He was pronounced dead at 10 a.m. at Northwest Community Hospital, according to the medical examiner’s office.

Police and fire officials said Laseke may have been trying to back into his garage but went forward instead. His SUV hit an electrical transformer and then dove into the pond in back of a townhouse complex in the northwest suburb.

“He accelerated very quickly,” Geiger said. “It literally launched him into the middle of the pond. He hit a transformer, so that’s on fire now, and he took out a patio. It was incredibly loud.

“So I jumped in and another guy jumped in and swam out by me,” he said. “I was feeling kind of confident it would stay afloat long enough. But the front glass was broke, that’s where the water started coming in. And the more it was flowing in, the more the glass was starting to break the front windshield. As soon as that started collapsing, the water started flowing in. Probably within a minute it was submerged.

“I fought as hard as I could, until I was so exhausted I almost went under,” Geiger said.

Geiger, who works for a security firm, says he regrets he couldn’t do more for his neighbor.

“That look, him in the SUV, and then him being pulled out. I’ll never forget,” Geiger said. “I’ll never be satisfied that I couldn’t get him. Never.”