**Local Man Steals 400lbs of Seafood from Restaurant, Claims ‘The Ocean Owes Me One’**
PIERRE, S.D. – In a bizarre heist that has locals scratching their heads, a 47-year-old man was arrested early Tuesday morning after allegedly using a forklift to remove a 400-pound shipment of frozen shrimp and scallops from a downtown Pierre restaurant.
According to police, the suspect, identified as local resident Pierre Deny, was found asleep in the back of his pickup truck, surrounded by the stolen seafood, still wearing a chef’s hat he’d reportedly grabbed from the restaurant.
“He told officers he was ‘reclaiming what nature intended for the common man,’” said Sgt. Linda Crowe. “He claimed the ocean ‘owed him one’ after a bad fishing trip last summer.”
Deny, who has no criminal record, told the arresting officer that he was simply “practicing plain common sense” and that “restaurants mark up shrimp by 300%.”
“I ain’t no thief. I’m a redistributor of marine resources,” Deny reportedly said, adding that he planned to host a “neighborhood cookout for the little guy.”
The restaurant owner says he’s pressing charges, but the internet is already calling Deny a “folk hero.” The shrimp and scallops have been returned, though police report a “suspicious amount of melted ice” in the truck bed.
Share your thoughts below, Pierre. Is this man a menace, or a modern-day Robin Hood of the freezer aisle?