Coast Guard Hoax Nets Man 30 Months In Prison

PORT HURON (WWJ/AP) - It's not nice to try to fool the Coast Guard. Not smart, either, as a Detroit man learned the hard way.

Federal court in Port Huron has sentenced Craig Sanders to 30 months in prison, followed by three years' supervised release, after he made a fake distress call to the Coast Guard in March, 2010.

Sanders made a phone call in which he said, "My boat capsized. I was the only one wearing a personal floatation device. I made it ashore; my family didn't." Sanders said he was in Lake Erie at the time.

The Coast Guard mounted an intense ... and expensive ... eight-hour search before determining that the call was a hoax.

Sanders also has to pay over $53,000 in restitution.