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Cape May beach's loss is Delaware state park's gain

Molly Murray
The News Journal

All summer long,  Kyle, Steger and Poge kept Cape May swimmers safe from a white and red lifeguard stand, with their names penciled across the front.

Then, over the long holiday weekend, the stand got swept into the surf, where it traveled past Delaware Bay, Lewes, North Shores, Henlopen Acres, Rehoboth and Dewey beaches and washed up at Delaware Seashore State Park, just north of Indian River Inlet.

State park officials discovered it and moved it to a parking lot and then started calling around to see who was missing a stand.

A Cape May Beach Patrol Stand drifted off the beach during Tropical Storm Hermine and ended up at Delaware Seashore State Park.

A small marker screwed on the back says it was made by the State of New Jersey Department of Correction.

"That's ours," said Joe Sutter, an administrative assistant with the Cape May Beach Patrol. "I guess it just got caught in the surf."

STORY: Rehoboth lifeguard stand found off North Carolina’s Outer Banks

STORYAnother stolen Rehoboth lifeguard stand bobs into view

Even on Tuesday, the remnants of Tropical Storm Hermine were still kicking up the ocean along the Delaware coast.

Large waves still rolled onto the beach at Delaware Seashore State Park on Tuesday.

The stand was in remarkably good condition for having been tossed in the surf, said Parks and Recreation Natural Resources Police Chief Wayne Kline.

Sutter said Cape May officials plan to come to Delaware to retrieve their missing stand.

It's not unusual for beach patrol stands to go missing.

Rehoboth Beach Patrol lost seven stands in one evening in July 2015 when vandals tossed them in the ocean.

STORY: Hermine tracks north, but impact could linger for days

Kent Buckson, Captain of the Rehoboth Beach Patrol, said that all were eventually recovered though one of them was found 250 miles away rolling in the surf at Salvo, North Carolina. Buckson said all the others were brought back to Rehoboth and are back in use. They donated the one in Salvo to the beach patrol there because it would have been too costly to drive down and pick it up.

While most of Delaware's beach patrol stands are painted white or are natural wood, many New Jersey resorts color-code their stands. Ocean City, New Jersey's are white with red and blue trim, for instance, Cape May is white with red trim and North Wildwood is white with blue trim.

Reach Molly Murray at (302) 463-3334 or mmurray@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @MollyMurraytnj.