Boston Boat Owner: Don’t Buy Me A New Boat, Give Your Money To Charity [Video]

Boston boat owner David Henneberry may have lost his beloved vessel during the capture of Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, but he doesn’t want the Internet to buy him a new one.

Tsarnaev used Henneberry’s boat, Slip Away II, to hide fom police and the FBI during last week’s huge manhunt. By the time authorities had surrounded the vessel and captured Tsarnaev, more than 100 bullets had been fired into it. It looked, quipped Henneberry, like “Swiss cheese.”

That was when people on social media decided they’d like to buy the Boston boat owner a new baby. Henneberry’s response to that?

“It makes me feel wonderful that people that are thinking like that, but it is my boat. People lost lives and lost limbs. I’d rather the money go to the One Fund Boston. To buy me a new boat is a wonderful thing, I don’t want that, really. I would wish that they donate it to the One Fund Boston. They lost limbs. I lost a boat.

“Slip Away is slipping away. But I say it did its job. It held a bad guy and is going away like a viking ship.”

That’s just one quote from an interesting interview with CNN affiliate WCVB. In the piece, Henneberry also reflects on the moment he first saw Tsarnaev curled up in his boat:

“I got three steps up the ladder and rolled the shrink-wrap. I didn’t expect to see anything, but I saw blood on the floor of the boat. A good amount of blood. And I said ‘Wow, did I cut myself last time?’ I thought. I was in the boat a couple of weeks ago. Then I just look over there, and there is more blood.

“And I looked back and forth a couple of times and my eyes went to the engine block and there was a body.”

As a Boston resident, Henneberry was well-informed about the manhunt that was still in progress. However, he didn’t immediately connect his find to Tsarnaev. He says:

“I think maybe [I knew], but I didn’t want to think that. It’s fast.

“I see him lying there just like you see on the film (from the State Police helicopter’s infrared camera). He was just lying there by the engine block and the floor. I couldn’t see his face. I’m glad I didn’t see his face. I didn’t see his face. He didn’t move. I didn’t waste any time. I didn’t ask him if he wanted a cup of coffee. I was off that ladder. That is all I remember.”

Henneberry was later escorted by cops to a neighbor’s home as police surrounded the Henneberry residence. A badly wounded Tsarnaev eventually surrendered.

[Image via Shutterstock.com]