They Fled the Aquarium With a Stroller. There Was No Baby

A juvenile horn shark is back in its tank at the San Antonio Aquarium after three people whisked it away in a baby stroller. "When we first got the call, we thought it was kind of a hoax being that it was Shark Week last week," Leon Valley Police Chief Joseph Salvaggio tells KSAT. But the theft of the shark known as Helen, about a foot and a half long and less than a year old, was indeed real. Authorities say a male snatched it from a petting tank Saturday afternoon before two others wrapped it in a wet blanket. It was then moved to a bucket and placed in a stroller before the group's exit.

After the general manager confronted the group near a pickup truck, authorities traced the vehicle to a home in San Antonio's Northeast Side. An unidentified man, claiming the shark was to replace one of his own that had died, led authorities to an aquarium filled with marine animals "and the gig was up," Salvaggio tells the San Antonio Express-News. The 38-year-old was charged Monday with theft, according to police, who expect to charge two other people, per the AP. The shark, back swimming in its tank under observation, was found to be in good health. (More weird crimes stories.)