Authorities: Prowler Presumed Drowned After Fleeing In Canoe

BLOOMINGDALE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - Authorities say a prowler is presumed drowned after a canoe he used to flee from sheriff's deputies overturned in a frigid lake in southwestern Michigan.

The Van Buren County sheriff's department says deputies responded Wednesday to reports of a person looking into windows and trying to break into a vehicle in Bloomingdale Township. They followed footprints in the snow and spotted the man coming out of a barn.

Authorities followed the man toward Muskrat Lake, where he got into the canoe. He was told to return to land, but he kept going until the canoe overturned. Deputies in a rowboat tried unsuccessfully Wednesday to find him before divers searched the lake.

The man's name wasn't immediately known. The sheriff's department says additional searches were planned for Thursday.

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