Watch - ‘Pirates’ caught on video borrowing council rowing boat from compound in daring heist

The plastic boat is normally stored in Sleaford Town Council’s services team compound at the corner of Eastgate Car Park and used for monthly litter picks along the River Slea by volunteers of Sleaford River Clean group.

However, on Wednesday the Town Council posted a clip of CCTV footage on their Facebook page claiming: “Sleaford has its very own members of the Pirates of the Caribbean!”

They added: “We captured Sleaford’s answer to the infamous Pirates taking our boat out of the compound for a ride on the river!"

The video clip shows a group climbing into the storage compound and having some difficulty in scrambling the boat over the gates. It was spotted the next morning abandoned on the slipway near The Hub.

The council saw the funny side and added music from the Pirates of the Caribbean to dramatize the heist and said: “To give the ‘Pirates’ their due, they did work hard to get the boat out, but remember, we are watching you and would prefer it if you left the boat alone!”

They said: “Our team had to go and retrieve it from the river bank this morning!”

The council has confirmed the matter was reported to police and the Anti-Social Behaviour Team at North Kesteven District Council.

Lincolnshire Police have confirmed a report of three men being seen attempting to steal the boat from the secure area of Eastgate Car Park.

They encouraged anyone with information to get in touch on the non-emergency 101 number quoting incident 428 of March 27.