A bit of excitement in Burien’s Three Tree Point Monday night (June 5), as two underage boys (13 & 17 years old) stole a one-man kayak from one neighbor and oars from another, then jumped down off the bulkhead and started to paddle out into Puget Sound.

Several neighbors who witnessed the theft in the 3500 block of SW 172nd Street (map below) yelled for the thieves to come back, but that made them paddle away faster.

Burien Police were called to report the theft, and they dispatched an officer.

“By this time they were floundering mid-channel and drifting north,” one witness told The B-Town Blog. “Suddenly they both overturned and went into the sound. Some neighbors who happened to be home and had their boat out on on a buoy sprang into action and retrieved them…just minutes away from drowning.”

The witness adds that it if wasn’t for the heroic neighbors who reacted quickly with their boat, the two boys may not have survived. The average water temp in Puget Sound this time of year is around 51 degrees, and hypothermia can set in under 12 minutes, depending on the person’s size.

“We want to thank Lonny and Mady Murrey for the heroics of saving them!”

South King Fire & Rescue showed up as the two kids were taken ashore.

“Obviously they were in a hypothermia state,” the neighbor said. “And one of the kids was shaking so bad he couldn’t even reach out of the water to grab anything.”

The young thieves were transported to the hospital with a police escort.

Here’s a video from a security camera showing one of the thieves receiving emergency treatment:

Founder/Publisher/Editor. Three-time National Emmy Award winning Writer (“Bill Nye the Science Guy”), Director, Producer, Journalist and more...

11 replies on “Young thieves rescued after overturning stolen kayak at Three Tree Point Monday”

      1. @ D Guerrier – Statistically as of 2011, the Environmental Protection Agency set the value of a human life at $9.1 million. Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration put it at $7.9 million — and the Department of Transportation figure was around $6 million. However, that is negotiable since world overpopulation makes humans the cheapest expendable commodity based on supply and demand.based on information from: The Cost of a Human Life, Statistically Speaking – The Globalist Insurance Co. © 2011

  1. I hope these two are family members a 17 year old and a 13 year old hanging out together seems a little odd. Unless if there related anyways both should be charged and pay restitution for the police and fire aid help.

    Parents need to teach these two some morals about respecting other people’s property.

  2. So glad everyone is okay. Hypothermia is nothing to take lightly. That water is really cold!
    That time you thought you’d take your neighbors kayak for a joyride but your brains wouldn’t be fully developed for another 5-10 years….

  3. These two minors were caught prowling a neighbour’s car on SW Maplewild by the security camera on neighbour’s rperty prior to this incident. The neighbour alerted the community on our local forum only to find that these 2 theives were the same ones in this article. When filing a report with the Burien PD turns out these 2 are runaways from Yakima and are being transported to CPS in North Bend.

  4. I find it sad that in this article you keep calling them thieves. Yes they made a poor decision to steal something but just the 1 incident doesn’t make them thieves. And to make matters worse they almost drowned. These are children that could have lost their lives from their poor decision. No matter how much a parent teaches their children it’s up to the kids to make the right decision. If they make bad ones it doesn’t reflect bad parenting on the parents. But they are human, we ALL make bad decisions at least once in our lives. It doesn’t make us horrible people! Glad to hear that these children are now safe! (Notice I used the word “children” and not “thieves”??)

    1. Well with there being a post right above yours explaining these two are also supect’s in a car prowling and are possible runaways from Yakima. I would say these children are not making good decisions in life. Most likely the 17 year old has a criminal record is teaching the 13 bad skills in life.

    2. Where’s the facts that this is their first time breaking the law? Crime is crime regardless of age. Time to pay.

    3. @ Sara – You state “I find it sad that in this article you keep calling them thieves”. Consider a thought, Is your sadness due to the article description of these teenagers being labeled as thieves? Would it do any good to candy coat the issue and say “Poor misguided youth make a slight misjudgment in ethics?” In review that the teens refused to return when initially caught provides insight to the thug mentality of the teen’s theft. Obscurification of the theft moniker is almost paramount to soft approval of the act itself.. They are thieves and should treated accordingly. No quarter in the development years might result in a rehabilitated adult .

Comments are closed.