A man steals Victoria Clipper hoping to cruise to West Seattle
SEATTLE- It was a joyride that had SWAT teams, a bomb squad and the coast guard ready for the worst. One man managed to somehow get onto an empty Victoria Clipper and cruise onto Elliott Bay.
The reason is as bizarre as the crime, police say the man wanted to get to West Seattle.
“Saw the Clipper IV about a 100 feet off the dock in a Southerly direction we didn’t have it scheduled to sail today,” CEO Darrell Bryan said.
Bryan was the first to spot the boat drifting away from Seattle around 6 a.m.
Someone was joyriding on an $8 million boat.
“All of our captains were accounted for and someone had taken the boat we contacted the Coast Guard,” Bryan said.
The man hopped over the fence, unmoored the giant vessel and somehow got it to start.
“Kind of scary just that someone could do that, jump onto a boat and get it to work without having experience in it,” Hannah Sorensen said.
An army of officers, even a bomb squad made it out to sea to rescue the boat. A tug helped guide it back to safety.
“In 28 years we’ve never had anything like this happen,” Bryan said.
An unbelievable crime with a strange motive. The thief didn’t say much as he was being taken away by police but authorities say the man wanted to get to West Seattle.
“Hop on a bus maybe, a cab if you are feeling splurge worthy but don’t think the clipper is the best idea,” King County resident Julie Werner said.
The company is reviewing surveillance footage to see how the man pulled it off for now they say building a higher fence is necessary.