RedactedNarrative: On May 13th, 2017 Officer was notified of a capsized boat on the Des Moines River near the Vandalia boat ramp.  There were no injuries but the boat was still in the river. Officer contacted the owner and reported the following:  Operator tied his anchor rope to the stern of the boat so he could work on his boat motor that was cutting in and out of power.  Operator threw his anchor out in what he believed to be a safe location as he stated it was calmer waters than what he had encountered before the boat started to have motor problems.  
  
  The Des Moines river at the time of the incident was flowing very fast and almost bank full.  When Operator threw his anchor out, his boat traveled downstream approximately 20' before the anchor caught the riverbed.  This caused the stern of the boat to pull down towards the water surface allowing the river current to put a lot of force on the stern of the boat.  It did not take long with the current flow of the Des Moines river for the water to start coming over the stern of the boat causing the boat to capsize in a matter of seconds. 
  
  At this time, both Operator & his dog jumped into the Des Moines River and swam to the nearest shoreline/bank, which was the south shore.  The boat capsized due to the high water flow of the Des Moines river, boat motor problems, and tying the boat anchor to the stern of the boat instead of the bow of the boat.  Neither  Operator or the dog were wearing a life jacket.
  