After a 52-foot yacht crashed on the St. Croix River in Bayport early Sunday morning, the law enforcement response was swift and sweeping.

Among the agencies that responded to the call of a man missing in the river at 2:50 a.m. Sunday: Washington County, Minnesota State Patrol, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and Lakeview Emergency Medical Services. Divers from fire departments in Bayport, Stillwater, Mahtomedi, Scandia, Lower St. Croix Valley and Woodbury were called in to search the river after the man’s girlfriend told police that she last saw the man “kind of swimming, kind of standing” in the water.

After a full day of searching, authorities heard from the man’s attorney on Monday morning. Jason Elgersma, 36, of Minneapolis, was “alive and well,” the attorney said.

The search had been for naught.

On Tuesday, law enforcement officials and city officials were expressing outrage at the situation and tabulating the cost of the rescue-and-recovery effort.

Bayport Fire Chief Al Eisinger said he was rousted out of bed at 2:58 a.m. Sunday to respond to the call.

“The (guys) are just very upset,” he said. “You have the emotional trauma because you don’t really know what you’re going to find out there. … Shame on them, especially given what we found out later. If they had been truthful with us, we wouldn’t have had to activate everybody out.”

Said Stillwater Mayor Ted Kozlowski: “Diving at 3 a.m. in cold water with a strong current around an unstable platform, which is a half-sunken boat, is really, really dangerous. The whole effort put everybody who responded at risk and took resources away from anything else that might have been happening.”

Eisinger and Kozlowski said both communities would try to recoup their costs for the search. Both said the total could be in the “thousands of dollars.”

“We know what we pay our people, and we absolutely know what our time is worth to do these kinds of things,” Kozlowski said. “We’ll be working in conjunction with the sheriff’s office and county attorney’s office and sending them a bill.”

Elgersma declined to be interviewed by the Pioneer Press, but his attorney, Eric Thole, provided a statement on his behalf.

“Jason appreciates all the concern people have had for his well-being, and he wants to thank the outstanding efforts of the local rescue operation,” Thole said. “Jason understands that those rescue efforts came at a cost to the taxpayers, so he is looking into how he can reimburse them.”

According to police, someone called 911 about 2:50 a.m. Sunday to report that they could hear yelling south of the Bayport Marina, but could not see anybody. The caller said a boat left the marina and was driving erratically.

A deputy from the Washington County sheriff’s office reported observing the yacht — later identified as a 52-foot Cruisers Ltd. yacht called Bromance — sinking about 75 yards south of the first slip at the Bayport Marina.

Deputies, who arrived by boat and squad car, saw no other boats in the water and did not hear yelling. They checked the boat and river for possible victims and found a flotation device and a duffel bag on the shoreline directly west of the boat.

According to Cmdr. Andy Ellickson of the Washington County sheriff’s office, the duffel bag contained a pair of wet jeans, a belt, Elgersma’s U.S. passport, his iPhone and his wallet, which contained Elgersma’s expired driver’s license from Wisconsin. The wallet also contained $2,007 in cash — 17 $100 bills, $280 in 20s, a couple of $5 bills and some $1 bills, he said.

Police believe the yacht struck land “with great force,” Ellickson said. Deputies observed “multiple trees with extremely high level of damage; some of the trees were even uprooted,” and the yacht’s dinghy was beached on shore, according to police reports. Related Articles Third body recovered from scene of fatal plane crash in Cottage Grove

Third victim recovered in Cottage Grove plane crash; 2 victims ID’d

Dodge Nature Center kicks off $40 million sustainability, accessibility campaign

Search continues for third occupant of plane that crashed on Sunday

Tenant sentenced in Willernie animal-cruelty case that caused death of landlady’s ‘dear little dog’

Deputies found Elgersma’s girlfriend, Kristin Erickson, 35, of Minneapolis, at the entrance of the Bayport Marina “wet … and with mud all over her pants,” according to police reports. “She appeared heavily intoxicated.”

Erickson initially told authorities that Elgersma made it to shore, but she said she did not know where he was. She later changed her story and said that she and Elgersma waited on the boat 15 minutes after it crashed “until they decided that they needed to get off the boat,” according to police reports. “She stated she put on a life jacket and swam to shore with her dog. She then stated that she last saw Elgersma in the water. She stated he was ‘kind of swimming, kind of standing’ in the water.”

Erickson then changed her story again, stating that she last saw Elgersma on the boat, according to police reports. The dive team was then activated.

He will have to live with the “court of public opinion,” Cmdr. Ellickson said.

Authorities discovered that Elgersma had an outstanding arrest warrant for failing to appear for a probation violation hearing in connection with a DWI conviction in 2015.

By Monday evening, Elgersma had surrendered on the arrest warrant. He was booked into the Washington County Jail in Stillwater, posted bail and received a court date. He did not give a statement to police, Ellickson said.

Elgersma is not the owner of the yacht but appeared to have permission to use it, Ellickson said. Crews on Tuesday evening were working to remove the yacht from the river, he said.

Ellickson said the sheriff’s office would not seek to recoup the cost of the search.

“It’s frustrating for law enforcement to put all these resources in and to have all these people out there and to put ourselves in danger, but that’s what the public expects of us in this situation,” he said. “It’s unfortunate when people take advantage of that. We have to assume that they are in the water, and we have to assume that we are going to try to recover the body for the family. We just do that. It’s part of what we do, but it puts our divers at risk, and it puts our teams in the water at risk and, yes, it is very frustrating … when somebody doesn’t appear to be on the up and up with us and appears to have avoided us.”

Elgersma will not face criminal charges because he left the scene of the crash before he could be tested for possible boating-while-intoxicated charges, Ellickson said.

But Elgersma will have to live with the “court of public opinion,” he said.

“This guy is going to have to deal with insurance, he’s going to have a very expensive tow out of the water, and then there’s the public perception,” he said. “People know his name, they know his history, and his mugshot is out there.”