Thieves confess to 'sharknapping' at Texas aquarium
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Two men have confessed to snatching a small shark from a Texas aquarium’s interactive touch tank, then whisking it away, wrapping it in a blanket and concealing it in a baby stroller, police say.
Miss Helen, the 40-centimetre-long grey horn shark, was returned to the San Antonio Aquarium on Monday night, two days after the heist was captured on surveillance video .
“Sharknapping: Unsuccessful!” the aquarium posted on Facebook afterward.
The surveillance footage shows a man plucking the shark from the tank and carrying it away, off camera, still dripping water. Another man is then seen depositing a blanket-wrapped item into a stroller and walking off, accompanied by the first man and a woman carrying a child.
Jenny Spellman, the aquarium’s general manager, told CBC Radio’s As It Happens she was in her office at the aquarium on Saturday when an employee called her to report that a suspicious man had emerged from the employee backroom pushing a baby stroller dripping with water.
Spellman said she and the employee followed the trio to a truck in the parking lot and confronted them.
“I said there’s been some reports of a theft and it looked pretty suspicious that they had some water dripping and I needed to do a search of their vehicle,” Spellman said. “The man I spoke with said they were dripping water because his Yeti cup spilled into the stroller and they needed to leave right away because his son was sick.”
The man then sped off, Spellman said, leaving the other two behind. Luckily, a fast-thinking aquarium worker jotted down the man’s licence plate before he took off.
Happy ending
The shark was recovered Monday night from a home filled with fish tanks and other marine life, said Leon Valley Police Chief Joseph Salvaggio.
Salvaggio said the men confessed to the shark snatching, and investigators planned to talk with the woman Tuesday. He told San Antonio TV station KSAT that one of the men was knowledgeable about marine life and likely went to the aquarium specifically for that shark.
“The individual obviously had some knowledge on how to deal with these types of animals, we said that from the very beginning, otherwise why take it? And when we got into the garage and into the house, it looked like almost a mock-up of [the aquarium],” he said.
Authorities are speaking with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to determine whether any federal charges can be filed, Salvaggio said.
As for the Miss Helen, Spellman said she is recovering just fine from the bungled heist.
“Right now she’s doing great,” Jenny Spellman, the aquarium’s general manager, told As It Happens guest host Piya Chattopadhyay.
“It’s a happy ending for us for Shark Week.”
Watch as Miss Helen is returned to the aquarium.
Article source: https://www.thelocal.fr/20171023/corsica-wildfire-ravages-2000-hectares-of-forest
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