A man with a stolen gun hijacked a boat on the Delaware River in Philadelphia and posed as a federal official when confronted by the US Coast Guard on Wednesday, according to investigators.
The ordeal began around 7:10 p.m. when Philadelphia Police officers were stopped by a member of the yacht club to tell them he was exercising at Pier 5 Marina near Penn’s Landing shortly after 6:30 p.m. when a Subject, later identified as 31-year-old Roger Pojar, jumped into his docked 28-foot sailboat and set sail.
The Marine Unit sailed south along the Delaware River to locate the stolen vessel.
Around the same time, a US Coast Guard unit received a call about the stolen boat heading south up the Delaware River. They found the boat near the Walt Whitman Bridge.
Coast Guard officers boarded the boat and found Pojar, who told them he worked for a federal agency and had a gun. Investigators immediately located the semi-automatic weapon, which they later learned was also stolen.
Pojar is charged with violation of the uniform firearms law, robbery and other related crimes.
“This is very, very unusual,” Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small said. “We get stolen vehicles, stolen trucks, sometimes they even steal SEPTA buses, but this is very rare for someone to steal a sailboat.”
