MIAMI – Miami police arrested a 59-year-old man Sunday after they said he paddled up to a boat in Brickell, stole it, then tried to ram officers multiple times as he led them on a chase through Biscayne Bay.
According to an arrest report, the victim told police that he was walking near the seawall at 1155 Brickell Bay Drive when he noticed a man, later identified as Carlos Alberto Menendez, using a paddleboard to get up to and into his boat, which was moored about 100 feet away from the seawall.
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Police said Menendez freed the boat and started it, started heading north towards a nearby marina, then turned around and headed south towards the Rickenbacker Causeway.
The report states police located the vessel as Menendez traveled southbound in the Intracoastal Waterway near Dinner Key Marina and tried to stop him.
A chase ensued, police said. Marine officers from Miami, Miami Beach, Miami-Dade County, Coral Gables, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission all tried stopping Menendez, who they said made “various attempts” to ram police boats in the process.
Police said the vessel abruptly came to a stop southwest of Key Biscayne and Stiltsville and officers were able to take Menendez, who is homeless, into custody.
He was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $11,000 bond. He faces charges of second-degree grant theft, fleeing and eluding police and reckless operation of a boat.