Jewish teens helped save drowning man with swastika tattoo: 'We should be helping everybody'

Students at a Yeshiva high school in Brighton, Mass. flagged down a police officer to help save a man who was drowning in Chestnut Hill Reservoir. (Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Students at a Yeshiva high school in Brighton, Mass. flagged down a police officer to help save a man who was drowning in Chestnut Hill Reservoir. (Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Four Jewish teens helped to save the life of a Massachusetts man with a swastika tattoo who was drowning in a local reservoir.

The four boys — students at a Yeshiva high school in Brighton — happened to be walking past Chestnut Hill Reservoir on May 17 when they saw a body in the water, according to NBC Boston. The eagle-eyed teens also spotted the nearby patrol car driven by Carl Mascioli, a Boston College police officer, who said he was about to walk over to see what was wrong.

"As I approached them, two of them ran up to my car," Mascioli told the news station. "There was a body in the water."

The officer then rushed down the embankment, where he saw the unidentified man’s body partially submerged in the reservoir and motionless. As he pulled the man out of the water, Mascioli noticed the anti-Semitic symbol on the victim’s hand — and he felt the boys should know about it.

"I kind of let the gentlemen know sometimes some deeds have a funny way of turning around," Mascioli said. "Their good deed had a little bit of a twist to it."

The man was sent to a hospital and is expected to recover, but police say he didn’t have much time left when the young men discovered him. Mascioli told the station he probably wouldn’t have seen the victim on his own, and he has no idea how he ended up in the water.

Mascioli said the Jewish teens also had a message for the man they helped to save, and he made sure it was delivered.

"They wanted just to let him know that it was four young Jewish boys that helped save his life," the officer said.

Mascioli told NBC Boston the teens, who are not permitted to speak with the media, have no regrets at all.

"A good deed is a good deed and that's part of life,” he said. “We should be helping everybody out.”

In 2012, another person fell into the Chestnut Hill Reservoir and died before he was discovered. It’s believed that the death of Boston College student, Franco Garcia, was an accident, according to WBUR.

Yahoo Lifestyle has reached out to Carl Mascioli for comment.

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