Coast Guard: SPI missing person report a false alarm

A U.S. Coast Guard official called the report of a missing person who wandered off the beach into the water early Tuesday morning a "false alarm."

The South Padre Island Coast Guard Station dispatched a search team early Tuesday, scouring the beach for a man who had reportedly entered the water near the Best Western La Copa hotel and never returned. South Padre Island Police Chief Randy Smith said Tuesday that his officers were also searching for any sign of the man.

By Tuesday afternoon, Gary Walker, operational controller at Coast Guard Sector Corpus Christi, said the Coast Guard found the man, who had been swimming, unharmed. "We are now considering it a false alarm," Walker said.