Pr. George's pond mystery solved

Prince George's County rescuers searched an ice-covered pond on Tuesday morning fearing someone had fallen through. But they didn't find a victim.

Turns out a man had broken through the ice hours before, but was able to pull himself free.

It all started at about 9:30 a.m. when a 911 caller reported tracks leading to a hole in the ice covering a pond at the rear of a Metro garage near the Boulevard at Capital Center shopping center in Largo.

Rescuers conducted a search, but found no sign someone was in the water.

Mark E. Brady, spokesman for the Prince George's County Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department, said the mystery was later solved by rescuers on an earlier shift.

About 4:30 a.m. Tuesday they had treated a man suffering from hypothermia and frostbite who was at a bus bay at the Largo Town Center Metro Station. The man, in his 30s, said he had fallen through the ice of a pond and was able to free himself.

Brady said the man is in the hospital.

-- Maria Glod