Man Charged After Truck Sinks in Frozen River With Dog Inside

The man whose pickup truck cracked through the ice on a frozen New Jersey river and sank with his 2-year-old dog in the backseat, prompting an intensive multi-agency search, has been charged with criminal mischief and careless driving, New Jersey State Police said Tuesday.

Andrew Mayer, 27, is expected to face animal cruelty charges pending the outcome of an SPCA investigation, police said.

Mayer allegedly drove out onto the frozen Toms River around 12:15 a.m. Sunday and started doing donuts. The truck's headlights and brake lights were visible from the shoreline at first; then they disappeared. The man's dog, Rollo, was trapped in the backseat of the truck when it went under.

By the time responders found the submerged vehicle, 10 hours later and 100 feet from shore, the young boxer mix was dead. A friend of Mayer who asked that NBC 4 New York not use his name said Mayer tried to get the dog out of the backseat before the truck crashed through the ice, but the dog was terrified -- and the vehicle sank so quickly.

"He would do anything for that dog, anything," the friend said. "That was his baby."

Mayer, who rents the basement of a home with his friend Daniel Joly, declined to talk to NBC 4 New York Monday. Police said Joly, who was a passenger in the truck at one point, told investigators he argued with Mayer about driving on the frozen river and got out of the vehicle.

Area police and firefighters searched for the truck and were joined by a helicopters dispatched by the Coast Guard and the New Jersey State Police. The multi-agency search cost "hundreds of thousands of dollars," a police source estimated.