#VanLife.

A man in a van down by the ocean on Wednesday suddenly found his rig and trailer submerged in the Oregon surf, and locals have spent the past two days trying to extricate the sinking, sand-locked vehicles.

"It's kind of a smaller version of the New Carissa," Clatsop County Sheriff Tom Bergin told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Thursday. "You can quote me on that."

Bergin said his office received a call about 4:30 a.m. Wednesday by the man, who officials haven't identified, claiming his Chevrolet 20 Globemaster and small travel trailer had become submerged by the rising tide at Del Ray Beach near Gearhart.

"About once a year we get one of these calls," Bergin said.

It took several hours for a tow-truck company to arrive and attempt to hoist the sinking rig out of the ocean. By then, the van and trailer were buried 3 feet deep in the sand, the sheriff said.

"You have to understand, this is heavy-duty sand," Bergin said. "This is hundreds of thousands of pounds coming down on these things."

The pounding of the surf eventually destroyed the trailer, the sheriff said.

By 2:15 p.m. Thursday, the van — which is seen with a cardboard sign reading "No I'm Not Camping" hanging from the antenna — was still stuck. Bergin said his office was now working to hire an excavator to pull it out.

To the owner's credit, the man hasn't left the scene since the whole episode began, Bergin said.

"The guy has been really good about hanging around and picking up his own damn garbage," the sheriff said.

Asked about the "I'm Not Camping" sign, the sheriff sighed.

"Yeah, I don't know what that's about," Bergin said. "We have a lot of characters in this community."

-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh

skavanaugh@oregonian.com

503-294-7632 || @shanedkavanaugh