PAW PAW, Mich. (WOOD) — New bodycam video from the Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office shows how deputies were able to find a lost kayaker in the middle of the night earlier this week.

It happened late Monday night into early Tuesday morning, when deputies initially got reports of a suspicious shirtless man with a boat paddle asking a Waverly Township homeowner to use their phone.

It turns out the 35-year-old Paw Paw man was a kayaker trying to get help finding his friend after they got lost along the Paw Paw River due to the darkness.

“Where’s your friend at?” the deputy asks.

“She’s still out there. She was like, ‘I can’t go no further… blah, blah blah.’ I was like, ‘Alright, well I’m going to get to the road, get some help, and then I’ll be back,” explains the man.

“So do we have somebody missing on the river?” the deputy says.

“Well, I need to go help her. That’s why I was trying to get to my vehicle, yes,” answers the man.

Deputies eventually determined she was along the river in the area of 44th Avenue, northwest of Paw Paw. When they pulled up, they started to hear a female voice calling for help.

“Yeah, she’s right here. Do you hear her?” said the man. “Heather? I’m coming right now, girl!” he says as he runs into the woods.

Just after midnight, deputies found the woman.

“Hello,” says the officer who first sees her.

“Hello,” she replies.

“Catch a breath … you okay?” he asks.

“Yeah, now,” she answers.

Without a flashlight, she told the deputy she walked along the riverbank for an hour not knowing where she was, after her kayak overturned and her phone died in the process. The pair used some deer trails to head back, eventually meeting up with the others.

“I can’t believe you left me out here,” the woman says to the man when she sees him.

“I didn’t leave you!” the man says back.

“He’s the one that came and got us,” adds the officer.

“Yeah, thank God,” says the woman.

Both the man and woman reported no serious injuries and denied EMS treatment. Sheriff Dan Abbott told News 8 that this is the county’s second incident involving kayakers this year, which is at a normal pace.

For anyone looking to hit the water until the seasons change, he recommends taking a flashlight with you, fully charging your phone and having it sealed in a Ziploc bag to protect its battery in case you flip over, and keeping in mind where you’re going and the amount of daylight you have left.