Making A Break For It: Sea Lion Steals Police Boat

NEWPORT BEACH, CALIF. (CBS) Law enforcement officers are used to apprehending thieves on a daily basis, and officers at the Orange County Sheriff's Department are no different. But last week Deputies James Slikker and Tracy Sizemore of the department caught a thief of a different kind red-handed.

In this case, the culprit was trying to steal a police boat in broad daylight. Fortunately, the suspect was a sea lion who lacked boat-driving skills and did not get far.

Slikker and Sizemore, who were operating the boat from the upper bridge, noticed that the blue police lights began flashing and the boat's emergency pump kept turning on and off. When the two descended onto the lower deck, the deputies discovered a sea lion sitting in the secondary driver's seat, with one flipper on wheel and the other flipping switches.

After the deputies coaxed the creature off the police boat, the sea lion swam around the harbor before getting on the dock and posing for picture with the deputies, reports the Orange County Sheriff's Department blog.

The officer's took it easy on the creature and let it off the hook with a warning.