It was a bizarre day in Newport Beach, California, when a man stole an 80-foot yacht and nearly made a clean getaway, though he ran onto a breakwall, raided the yacht’s liquor cabinet and ran out of fuel.
Moments after allegedly breaking into the yacht through a forward hatch, Richard Rodriguez, 32, left the dock and ran it onto a breakwall.
Rodriguez brazenly called the Orange County Harbor Patrol for help. After the yacht, named Stimulus, was freed from the breakwall, authorities questioned Rodriguez and let him continue on his way. He told them he had been hired by the owner to deliver Stimulus to Mexico.
KTLA 5 News reported on the incident.
Underway and apparently bound for Mexico, Rodriguez helped himself to the yacht’s liquor supply. Intoxicated, he reportedly said nuclear submarines surfaced around him, one with rock star Gene Simmons from the band Kiss on board. He said Simmons told him to head north, so he turned around and circled in a basin until running out of fuel.
He was ranting about President Obama and threatened to “blow the whole place up,” according to one witness.
He was arrested by the Coast Guard after making a threat on the VHF.
