Movement to Replace Boat Ruined in Standoff with Suspected Bomber
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Bing(WATERTOWN, Mass.) — America wants to help David Henneberry get a new boat.
The Watertown, Mass., resident became a hero when he discovered suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev hiding in his backyard boat.
Henneberry quickly called the cops and in a final standoff, his boat was riddled with bullet holes.
“That boat’s his baby. He takes care of it like you wouldn’t believe. And they told him it’s all shot up,” Henneberry’s friend and neighbor George Pizzuto told ABC News.
“He’s going to be heartbroken.”
Deborah Newberry, 62, of Orlando, Fla., has already put a $25 check in the mail to Henneberry’s home.
She believes Henneberry had to be “awfully, awfully cool” to emerge from a daylong lockdown, notice something wrong with his boat, find a bloody man in it and slip away to call police.
“Just listening to his coolness and how he handled the situation, it was like okay, that is a man who needs to have his boat restored,” Newberry said.
When asked if she sent Henneberry any note with the check Newberry said no, she simply wrote, “towards a new boat” on the check.
“[The boat] is fairly insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but that’s what’s significant to him,” Florida lawyer John Phillip told ABCNews.com. “If that’s what the guy’s passion is, I have no problem whatsoever chipping in and helping out.”
Phillips, 38, is a personal injury attorney in Jacksonville, Fla. He wants to send Henneberry $1,000 for a new boat since he predicts the boat will be held as evidence for some time.
“He just had his boat shot up and had a terrorist live in it for a day,” Phillips said. “If the dude wants an upgraded boat, let’s get the guy a boat without terrorist blood in it.”
People on Twitter are echoing the calls to help Henneberry, hailing him a hero.
“Bravo, David Henneberry! You are a true American hero. I say we all pitch in and buy you a new boat. #welldeserved,” one person tweeted.
Henneberry’s boat is reportedly a 22-foot Seahawk cruiser with a fiberglass hull, which retails for around $50,000.
He did not return ABC News’ request for a comment.
“It took more than the police department to get it done and that’s the American spirit to me,” Phillips said. “It’s one random guy and one random boat ironically in a town named Watertown that’s supposedly landlocked. Truth is stranger than fiction. You couldn’t write this stuff and be believable.”
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