to save one man who has crept dangerously close to the edge of the falls. the call comes in on march 19th, 2003, 5:08 p.m. sergeant pat moriarty is on duty. he's a 19-year veteran of the niagara falls state park police. >> our radio man yelled down the hall, sarg, said i just got a call from the canadians, there's a man on the ice at terrapin point. >> not a safe place to be. terrapin point is a piece of land that sits as close to the falls as you can get. >> the drop from that point, at terrapin point, is over 180 feet straight down. if you go over in that particular spot, you're not going to survive. >> when moriarty arrives on the scene, it's even worse than he expected. the man is not on the icy formation on land. he's waist deep in frigid water. >> when i saw the victim standing almost in waist-deep water right at the brink of the falls, the hair on the back of my neck went up. >> moriarty immediately calls the fire department and the helicopter rescue unit. he also calls the power company