A man armed with a stolen gun stole a boat on Philadelphia's Delaware River and pretended to be a federal official when confronted by the U.S. Coast Guard on Wednesday, investigators said.
The ordeal began around 7:10 p.m. when Philadelphia police officers were flagged down by a member of a sail club. The member told police the club was doing training exercises at Pier 5 Marina near Penn's Landing just after 6:30 p.m. when a man, later identified as 31-year-old Roger Pojar, jumped onto their docked 28-foot sailboat and set sail.
The responding officers traveled in a boat south along the Delaware River to locate the stolen vessel, investigators said.
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Around the same time, a U.S. Coast Guard unit received a call about the stolen boat headed south on the Delaware River. The Coast Guard team then found the stolen boat near the Walt Whitman Bridge.
The Coast Guard officers boarded the boat and found Pojar, according to investigators. Pojar allegedly told the officers he worked for a federal agency and had a gun. The Coast Guard officers located the gun, a semi-automatic weapon that investigators said was stolen, and detained Pojar until police arrived.
Officers could later be seen leading Pojar into a waiting police van.
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Pojar is charged with violation of the uniform firearms act, theft and other related offenses.
"This is very, very unusual," Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small said. "We get stolen vehicles, stolen trucks, sometimes they even steal SEPTA bus, but this is very rare for someone to steal a sailboat."
There are additional resources for people or communities that have endured gun violence in Philadelphia. Further information can be found here.
