From Miami Herald staff reports. Posted Tuesday, January
15, 2002 in The Miami Herald
Three Cuban migrants, cold and full of sand, walked into the lobby of the
Coral Sands Resort on Miami Beach late Monday, asking the front desk clerk for
help.
"They came in and said they had just come from Cuba,'' said Erik
Acevedo, who worked the evening shift at the hotel at 3611 Collins Ave. "Then
they asked me to call police.''
The three adult men approached the hotel shortly before 11 p.m. and told
Acevedo they came ashore in a small motorboat a few miles north of the hotel.
The men, who all had Cuban identification cards, said they had walked two hours
before entering the Coral Sands.
"I believed them,'' Acevedo said. "They were shivering and hungry
and had sand all over them.''
The hotel staff gave the men water and wrapped them in bedspreads until
Miami Beach police and fire rescue arrived.
Copyright 2002 Miami Herald |