She was tied to pier 69 in Seattle and some fellow got untied her and went aboard. It sounds like folks from the office noticed but first were calling around to see if it was being taken for maintenance and then contracted a tug. The tug’s crew discovered the boarder and alerted the Coast Guard. The Seattle Police SWAT team ended up boarding and arresting him before sending the bomb squad aboard. Sounds like he’s being held on charges of failing to register as a sex offender while they figure out what to charge him with. What an odd start to the day.
Darrell Bryan, chief executive officer of Clipper Navigation, said he was in his office about 5 a.m., worrying about the wind and high waves, when he noticed the boat about 100 feet from the dock. He said he knew it was due for repair and not scheduled to be refueled. He called all the captains to see if they were on the boat and when they weren’t, he concluded the boat had been stolen. The man was able to start the boat because he apparently had some knowledge of boats, Bryan said. The boat has a joy stick and, according to the vessel superintendent, John Jacoby, the thief tried to use it like it was “an XBox,” causing the boat to go in circles.
The boat has a joy stick and, according to the vessel superintendent, John Jacoby, the thief tried to use it like it was “an XBox,” causing the boat to go in circles.
That’s what I did about a year ago when they asked if I had ever tried steering a ship and let me in the controls…
“Look, I just made a figure eight with a 12,000-ton ship!”
A convicted felon under state supervision who took a Victoria Clipper ship Sunday morning was trying to run for Canada, Seattle police investigators now contend.
Arrested aboard the $8 million high-speed ferry, the Preston man is alleged to have celebrated his 33rd birthday by stealing the ship from Pier 69 in downtown Seattle and heading for Victoria alone.
[QUOTE=mtskier;125530]So Im sure he just showed his TWIC card and strolled on in…[/QUOTE]
I’ll quote the Port of Seattle Police Detective’s statement of probable cause. where he talks about the “TWIK area”.
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Imagine if the fool knew what he was doing. At 30+ knots, I doubt police would have tried to board it. They would have to wait for the fuel to run out - about 65 miles later according the article.
Ah, we could speculate ‘what if’ all day.
Let’s just be thankful thieves are not that smart.
The clipper is gas turbine so I would imagine a little bit of sophistication to fire that baby up, driving with a joystick would indeed be the easy part.
[QUOTE=tasteless;125812]I liked this story a lot more when I thought it was going to be about someone stealing a real clipper thinking they were going to be a pirate…[/QUOTE]
