A trio of sharknappers wheeled Miss Helen, a horn shark who’s less than a year old, out of the San Antonio Aquarium, but the police tracked them down.
Miss Helen, a 16-inch-long horn shark in the San Antonio Aquarium in Texas, lives in a tank where visitors are encouraged to touch the animals. Three people took the encouragement too far this past weekend, lifting the shark out of the tank and plopping her into a baby stroller, the police said.
The trio of sharknappers — Ocean’s Three? — are seen on surveillance video using their own net to capture Miss Helen on Saturday, removing her from the 76-degree water after staking out the pool for more than an hour, the aquarium said in a statement. She was transported into 52-degree water to make her voyage — a shock to the system that her handlers feared would quickly kill her.
But Miss Helen, who’s less than a year old, proved her resilience, from her snout to her caudal fin. And the apparent thieves, if bad at covering their tracks, turned out to be good at taking care of sharks.
Staff members immediately realized that something was amiss, the aquarium said. Management caught up to the trio in the parking lot, but they refused to allow an inspection of their truck or the baby stroller and drove off.
No matter. Surveillance footage recorded the license plate number, and an image of the getaway truck was all over local media. Tips poured in to the police, who tracked down the truck Monday morning, according to Joseph Salvaggio, chief of the Leon Valley Police Department.
The police arrived at a home near where the car was found and were preparing a warrant when a man arrived and let the officers into the home, Chief Salvaggio said.
They quickly found Miss Helen. It was hard to miss the giant pool inside the house, filled with sharks and other marine animals.
“It looked like almost a mock-up” of the aquarium, he said on Monday at a news conference. “Luckily, the thief was someone who knew what he was doing.”
The man, 38, tried to show a receipt for the same type of shark, “but it was obviously doctored,” Chief Salvaggio said. On Monday night, the man confessed to taking Miss Helen, and a neighbor confessed to helping, he said.
The two men, who were not identified, were charged with theft, he said. Officers expected to speak to the third person, a woman, on Tuesday. The local police are working with federal officials to determine if federal charges might be warranted, since transporting some animals requires permits, Chief Salvaggio said.
It was not clear why they took Miss Helen, who is valued at about $2,000. Chief Salvaggio said that the police didn’t initially think the thieves planned to sell her, and that the man once had a similar shark who died.
Aquarium officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The aquarium staff arrived at the home on Monday and took Miss Helen back to the aquarium, where she began her process of reacclimating in a quarantine pool. In a container roughly the size of a laundry tub, she wiggled in front of news cameras.
Jamie Shank, the aquarium’s assistant director of husbandry, said she didn’t know how long it would be until Miss Helen could go back to her normal life in the petting tank. She’ll be closely observed to make sure she has a healthy appetite, is handling the stress well and is free of parasites or illnesses, she told News 4 San Antonio.
“She’s a tough little horn shark, I’ll tell you that,” Ms. Shank told reporters on Monday. “I’m really proud of her.”
