Lyndsey Jane Kennedy, 44, of Key West, Florida, needed to be rescued from a drainpipe last week for the third time in two years.
Firefighters helped Kennedy out once again after she got herself caught in a powerful current while swimming in a canal on January 18, Fox News reported.
“It kind of sounds like she just likes being down there,” Jason Evans, information officer for Dallas Fire-Rescue, told The Dallas Express.
Delray Beach police and firefighters had responded to a distress call that Wednesday around noon. They had been told that a woman — Kennedy — was in danger while swimming.
First responders found the woman, identified her, and asked if she needed help. Kennedy ignored them and entered a storm drain anyway. Delray Beach police said she refused to leave and crawled further into the pipe underneath a street.
Firefighters held Kennedy between two pipes while the Delray Beach Fire Rescue Special Operations Team used a ladder and rescue harness to retrieve her. Kennedy’s family tracked her last location before she disappeared underground using a cellphone app. Her family and friends dropped bags of food and beverages into maintenance holes before her rescue.
Before being taken to the hospital for more tests, Kennedy’s minor injuries were treated at the scene.
Delray Beach police said that the fire department had already rescued Kennedy from a storm drain in March 2021.
During that incident, Kennedy told police she swam in a canal near her boyfriend’s house on March 3, the night he reported her missing. She claimed she saw a tunnel in a shallow canal doorway while swimming and followed the tunnel until she got lost.
Evans said he could not remember the last time Dallas Fire-Rescue retrieved a person stuck in a storm drain in the city.
“A lot of times that happens, it’s usually homeless individuals end up in these areas during heavy rains,” he told The Dallas Express.
Kennedy “appeared coherent” and did not need institutionalization, the Delray Beach police said. Her mother told investigators that her daughter had a history of mental illness, drug use, “odd things,” and “bad decisions.”
Kennedy had written her mother a note before her disappearance saying she wanted to travel alone, according to relatives. The family said she was not meant to travel in a storm drain.
Kennedy was “endangered,” and a detective wrote in the report that she went missing “under similar circumstances” in April 2020, according to police.
That incident does not seem to have involved a storm drain; however, roughly two years later, in May 2021, another Kennedy storm drain rescue occurred in Grand Prairie, Texas.
Her mother and a best friend found her in a canal after four days of police searching. She had allegedly left a rehab facility after checking in. She then ran into a storm drain when police approached her near a creek.