Advertisement Man takes swim in Broadmoor sinkhole Makeshift swimming pool caused by broken water main Share Shares Copy Link Copy

People living in a Broadmoor neighborhood had quite a laugh Thursday when they saw a man swimming in a large hole in the ground at Milan and South Rocheblave streets.The neighbors have seen crews working on the street for the past few weeks, but when they noticed a man with an inflatable swan inside the hole, they could not help but shake their heads and laugh."I had to take a double-take down there. It was kind of crazy, you know," said Joseph Pitts.Pitts was watching his children play in their kiddie pool under the afternoon sun when he looked down the street and saw something out of the ordinary."The guy had the swan out there swimming in the water. He was really in the water and really swimming in there," Pitts said. "The road is closed and they're doing work down there and you got a big swan."A driver passing by shot a video that showed the man with a huge swan, red swim trunks and sunscreen on his nose wading in a sinkhole."When he was coming out with the duck or whatever, he laid up there and said, 'Aw, man, ya'll need to get in the water. It's so nice in the water,' and I'm like, 'Hold up, that's a ditch, dude, like really?'" Freddie Seals said.The mystery swimmer was completely committed to his adventure."(He said) 'This is the deep end, this is the kiddie part, and he's the lifeguard.' He said he really is a lifeguard though," Pitts said.With water gushing out of the sinkhole rapidly, neighbors have grown worried about their safety."It's water leaking everywhere, floods. We have to move our cars and stuff like that," Seals said. "They had someone fall into that whole last weekend, and we were trying to get them out but we couldn't get them out."After about 30 minutes spent wading in this in-ground pool, the neighbors said the swimmer got out."I think the whole neighborhood is going to come around and try to swim in it since (your) boy came," Seals said. "I'm not getting in there."A spokesperson from the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board said a contractor working in the area Thursday broke the water main and left without reporting it. The contractor needed a special part to fix the line.Keep up with local news, weather and current events with the WDSU app here.Sign up for our email newsletters to get breaking news right in your inbox. Click here to sign up!