A Miami-Dade Police officer who jumped in to save a woman from a submerged car while on vacation recounted the moments he went into action.
Lt. Nelson Andreu and his family were vacationing at a Fort Pierce resort and were on the golf course when what started with some bad putting on the green ended in a sudden emergency.
Andreu said he first new something was wrong from a look on his son Aiden's face.
"My son, I see him, he looks a little weird, like 'what's wrong?'" Andreu remembered asking. "I thought he was complaining about my golf game cause it wasn't good."
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Aiden had spotted a car by a lake on the golf course. Before they knew it, the car was rolling into the water with a woman inside.
"I called 911, I told them what was going on, I took off most of my clothes and I jumped in the lake," Andreu said.
Andreu said he took off with one thought on his mind. "I want to get help there, and I wanted to get her out," he said.
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But there was one major problem.
"She was not coherent and understanding what was going on," he said.
Andreu said he called to the woman to swim out of the sinking vehicle, but she would not respond. When he reached her, she was able to swim out of a window, but then she kept clinging to the car.
“I was like 'let go of the car, let go of the car. I don’t care what’s in there, let it go!'" he said.
Andreu yanked her hand away from the car and she told him she could swim a little.
"I pulled her and she kicked until we got to the shore," he said.
But the emergency wasn’t over. Andreu then spotted a man who had jumped in to help. He assisted the man in getting back to shore as well.
Paramedics showed up, and no one was seriously hurt. Andreu credits his training for reacting the way he did.
"You kind of like train for situations and when they happen you just react, I think that's what this profession does, that's how we train our officers, to be ready for the calling," Andreu said. "I was just lucky enough and God placed me at the right place at the right time."
Later that same day, the woman tracked Andreu down to his room at the resort. She knocked on his door, and thanked him.
"It was a special moment," he said.
