EIGHT LONG ARMS OF AN OUTLAW

You’ve heard the phrase “the long arm of the law.” Well, here’s a story of the eight long arms of an outlaw, in this case a thief.

STOP THIEF! UNDERWATER CHASE AFTER OCTOPUS STEALS DIVER’S VIDEO CAMERA (AND KEEPS FILMING)
By Daily Mail Foreign Service

Mail Online
April 19, 2010

When diver Victor Huang decided to record some underwater footage, he wasn’t expecting any of the sealife to be camera-shy.

So he was caught off-guard when an octopus made a swipe at him – grabbing his device with a tentacle before swimming away.

Mr Huang, 31, had been filming the eight-armed bandit off the coast of Wellington, New Zealand, when he thought he was under attack.

However, as he bolted for the surface, Mr Huang realised the creature was only after his bright blue underwater snapper.

After grabbing the £350 video camera, the robber escaped, leaving Mr Huang chasing him for five minutes to catch up with the aquatic crook.

In a bid to distract the octopus, the diver then held out his speargun, which the cephalopod grabbed with several tentacles – allowing the camera to drop to the seabed.

Mr Huang was then forced to carry the octopus around for a few minutes after it refused to let go of the gun.

The camera was recording throughout the entire incident. The footage – over which the diver records what’s going on at the time - has now been posted on YouTube.

He explains: ‘Here I'm panicking a bit trying to unwrap the tentacles from my wrist.

‘Then I realise all its arms are concentrated around the camera.

'It's grip is too powerful... the camera gets ripped out of my hands.’

Speaking of the incident afterwards, Mr Huang said: ‘I honestly believe that it saw the bright blue digital camera and went, “Oh I need that”, you know?’