On Monday, Santa Cruz Harbor Patrol shared the moments they say they found 27-year old Austin Medeiros stealing a sail boat on Sunday afternoon.
Harbor Patrol Officer David Hill described his initial reaction as confused and said, “We’re like ‘Who’s boat is that?’ and my supervisor’s like ‘That’s one of our boats, that’s one of our impounded boats. What’s someone doing on it?'”
“We weren’t sure if it was going to be a rescue or what was going on, we just knew it was our boat,” added Officer Parker Guy.
With it being a windy day, officers said they were concerned for his safety and their initial goal was only to send help.
“They got underway in the patrol boat. Three officers on the patrol boat and went out into the channel to make contact with him, really for safety reasons because it was a potential rescue,” Harbor Master Blake Anderson said.
