I want to open this story with a quote from the man himself, 47-year-old John Morillo of Windsor, Ontario, "If I’m going to be in the paper, I’d at least like them to say I actually made it, even though I got in trouble and everything.  I gotta pay fines and stuff. But I don’t want it to sound like I didn’t make it, because then my buddies are going to say ‘ha, ha, you didn’t make it.’ Because that was the whole thing, to show them I could do it."

So, he made it.  He drunkenly swam across the Detroit River from Windsor to Detroit.

At about 11:30pm Windsor police got a call from Morillo's neighbor.  His neighbor was watching Morillo's stunt, but became worried when he lost sight of his friend.  Windsor police notified the U.S. and Canadian coast guards and three boats and a helicopter were rushed into action to make a rescue.  After an hour of searching the U.S. coast guard spotted Morillo on the Canadian side just west of the Hilton hotel.

Morillo had swam to the Renaissance Center and climbed up on shore to be greeted by a bunch of stunned onlookers.  He took some photos then jumped back in the river for his return trip.

The following day Morillo was interviewed by The Windsor Star, where he had a bunch of hilarious things to say:

The harbour master was extremely mad at me.  I don’t know, maybe they pulled him out of bed or something. - Morillo

As soon I saw the helicopters going by and the boats looking for me, I was like ‘oh, this is really stupid. - Morillo

Morillo is now facing fines between $5,000 and $25,000.

One person actually shot some video of his return trip.  Check it out below.











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