Watch These Thieves Steal a Shark From Aquarium By Disguising It as a Baby
That’s one way to celebrate #SharkWeek.
We all have our own ways of celebrating Shark Week, but some intrepid crooks in Texas might have taken things a bit too far when they stole a horn shark from the San Antonio Aquarium.
The heist went down over the weekend and the whole thing was caught on a surveillance camera. The drama begins when a dude with a fu manchu ‘stache snatches a 16-inch shark from a touch-pool. He quickly carries it out of the view of the camera, his buddy following close behind.
Then they re-enter the frame with the shark wrapped in a towel. The animal, whose name is Miss Helen, was then pushed out of the aquarium in a stroller.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0ClmjvE5mM
Staffers noticed something fishy going on with fu manchu and his fellow shark-snatchers and aquarium general manager Jenny Stellman caught up with them in the parking lot. She told The Washington Post what happened next:
Stellman told The Washington Post that she found the man in the parking lot about to get into a truck. She said she told him she had seen water leaking from the baby stroller.
“He said the water was dripping because they had spilled a Yeti cup onto the stroller and they were leaving in such a hurry because their baby that was with them needed medication.”
But when asked if the vehicle could be searched, the man refused, “jumped in his truck and drove off,” Stellman said.
It didn’t take long for police to track down the thieves and the shark, even though when they first got the call they didn’t quite believe it.
“When we first got the call, we thought it was kind of a hoax being that it was Shark Week last week,” Leon Valley Police Chief Joseph Salvaggio said. “But it turns out someone actually went inside the aquarium there in Leon Valley and stole a horn shark.”
Salvaggio said the shark was recovered Monday night in a home full of small aquariums and marine animals.
“When the suspect came home, he gave us consent to go in the house,” Salvaggio said at a press conference Monday. “He took us right to where the shark was and pointed (her) out.
New video from the @SAAquarium shows the shark rescue. The female shark is being positively identified as the same shark as the one stolen from the aquarium: pic.twitter.com/JXAMEUbuSf
— Michelle Broder Van Dyke (@MBVD) July 31, 2018
“Initially they were going to show us an old receipt for this type of shark, but it was obviously doctored and the gig was up,” he said.
The shark is back at home in good shape, the San Antonio Aquarium reported. The bungling crooks, on the other hand, are facing theft charges.
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