GOLD BEACH – A man apparently walking a dog along the beach at the flooded mouth of Hunter Creek south of Gold Beach was seen swept out to sea early Friday afternoon, Police Chief Dixon Andrews said.

Officials searched the area until dark without finding either the man or the dog, with the U.S. Coast Guard continuing to search by boat and planning to return early Saturday.

“We have no idea who we are looking for and we have no reports of a missing person,” Andrews said late Friday. 

 “But we have a very credible local person who was watching the tide at Hunter Creek, on the south side of the creek, the Kissing Rock side. He saw what looked like a small dog. The man ran in the water waist deep and he was swept off his feet. He saw him go down, up and go down,” Andrews said.

“The sheriff saw evidence someone was walking a dog. The incoming surf washed that away quickly. There’s no one missing we’re aware of. We didn’t find the dog, either,” Andrews said.

The police chief said the witness is a local businessman who was shaken up by what he saw.

Andrews said the Sheriff’s Office received a “no-voice” call from a cell phone and the call source was traced to the area of Highway 101 at the Hunter Creek bridge in Gold Beach.

“As a Gold Beach police officer was responding, the citizen who was attempting to call 911 flagged over a passing Curry County Sheriff’s patrol vehicle and informed the officer they had just observed a male get swept out to sea,” Andrews said.

The victim was reported to be wearing a heavy coat and possibly had on boots.

He “waded out into the surf, lost his footing, and then was quickly pulled out into the heavy, pounding surf,” Andrews said. “The witness observed the subject being pulled by the current out to sea in a northwesterly direction and saw the subject bob up and down in the water a couple times before going underwater and not resurfacing.”

Andrews said the Sheriff’s Office command, patrol and Search and Rescue, along with Gold Beach Police units, went to the area and began searching for the possible victim.

“The United States Coast Guard was contacted and responded to the scene with a helicopter from the North Bend Air Station and a motor lifeboat from Brookings,” Andrews said.