{"id":10093,"date":"2025-10-17T18:59:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T18:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/10093\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T18:59:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T18:59:08","slug":"aggressive-sea-otter-steals-surfboard-off-santa-cruz-california-coast-bites-surfer-water-rescue-ensues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/10093\/","title":{"rendered":"Aggressive sea otter steals surfboard off Santa Cruz, California coast, bites surfer; water rescue ensues"},"content":{"rendered":"

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — Surfers heading to Santa Cruz, California will have to keep a look out for a furry surfboard thief.<\/p>\n

A surfer at Steamer Lane says a sea otter bit her foot and then climbed onto her board Tuesday evening, holding it hostage for roughly 20 minutes as rescuers rushed in.<\/p>\n

Isabella Orduna was paddling out when she felt “a nip” on her foot. She rolled off and turned to see an otter perched on her board.<\/p>\n

Orduna says that after biting her, the otter took over her board for at least 20 minutes and, in the moment, she didn’t know what to do.<\/p>\n

VIDEO: Infamous Santa Cruz sea otter sought by officials after hijacking surfboards<\/a><\/p>\n

Thankfully, another surfer in the area was able to help her call for help.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO: North Carolina dog nearly sets house on fire after lithium battery bursts into flames | Video<\/a><\/p>\n

A full blown rescue ensued.<\/p>\n

When first responders arrived, they found the surfer in the water and the otter lounging on her board.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

A sea otter steals a surfboard from a surfer off the coast of Santa Cruz at Steamers Lane, on Tuesday Oct 14, 2025.<\/p>\n

Mark Woodward \/ Native Santa Cruz<\/p>\n

Lifeguards eventually got her surfboard back.<\/p>\n

For the past two summers, the notorious “Otter 841” went on a surfboard stealing spree in Santa Cruz.<\/p>\n

It’s not clear if this thief is the same otter or just a copycat as the tracker that was originally on “Otter 841” is no longer on her and there is no current way to confirm her identity.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2025 KGO-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — Surfers heading to Santa Cruz, California will have to keep a look out for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9672,7,9,8,9670,9671],"class_list":["post-10093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-9672","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-otter-steals-surfboard","tag-sea-otter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}