By Madeleine Marr
Miami Herald
VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — No boat? No problem.
Deputies from the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office had to improvise on the water Sunday in Ormond Beach.
In a Monday post to Twitter, the law enforcement agency revealed that after a man stole a Yamaha WaveRunner, deputies had to ask for an assist to chase him down.
“THANK YOU to an Ormond Beach family who let our deputies interrupt their Sunday afternoon to apprehend a suspect on a stolen jet ski.”
In bodycam footage, you see the deputy approach a boat owner and a young boy who are tying up their boat on a dock.
“Hey guys, quick question. We got a guy down there trying to steal a jet ski ... any way you could take a couple of us down?”
The man says the cops can just borrow his boat themselves.
The video cuts to the deputies chasing down the watercraft. The man was out on the Intracoastal floating as he was unable to get the water bike started, the the sheriff’s office says.
A deputy orders the suspect to swim over to them.
“Sheriff’s office! Put your hands up! Come over here!”
“I can’t,” the man screams back. “I don’t know how to swim.”
“So, you’re gonna take a jet ski and you don’t know how to swim?” a deputy yells back incredulously.
The deputies are then seen throwing the man a rope and towing him in to shore, where he was taken into custody.
The bodycam video ends with deputies shaking the generous boat owner’s hand.
“Y’all did great,” he tells the deputies.
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