Virginia Marine Police say they are towing the boat of a man with a suspicious device attached to himself to shore.

Officials say the man is in a nine foot inflatable boat that was in the middle of the James River, just south of the Ghost Fleet between Surry Nuclear Power Plant and Ft. Eustis. The man had a chain wrapped around his neck attached to a 2 foot by 1 foot black box.
Virginia Marine Police’s John Bull says the man, who was first spotted by a commercial crabber around 7 a.m., made no demands, appeared incoherent and disoriented, but at other times was also cooperative.

According to the Daily Press, Bull said the man provided no information other than to ask people to stay away from him.

“We don’t know who he is, and we don’t know how he got here,” Bull said. “We don’t know why he has a chain around his neck. We don’t know why the chain is attached to a black box, and we don’t know what’s in the black box either. We are approaching this with an abundance of caution so that a very strange situation doesn’t become more serious than it already is.”

As of 11:15 a.m. Friday, the Coast Guard, the Virginia State Police, Newport News Police Dept. and Fire Dept are responding, as well as Va. Game and Inland Fisheries, are on the scene.

(Source: WTVR)