Stolen Boat Taken On Destructive Joy Ride Through Newport Harbor

A San Diego CEO stole a 60-foot yacht in Newport Harbor and took it for a destructive joyride, crashing into dozens of boats and injuring one woman.

Joel Praneet Siam, 38, of San Diego, surrendered to the Orange County Sheriff's Harbor Patrol after they boarded the crashed boat after Siam's joyride on Thursday. He was seen being escorted by police wearing an orange life vest and wind-swept hair as he entered the squad car barefoot.

                    

He was later transferred into the custody of the Newport Beach Police Department and is booked into the Orange County Jail on a $3million bail.

Police charged Siam, who is listed as a CEO on his booking information, with grand theft of a boat and possession of a stolen boat after he vandalized cars and then stole the 60-foot yacht, crashing into dozens of other boats in the bay around 9.30am on Thursday.

During his joyride, Siam injured Debora Dolly, who was inside her friend's sailboat when made the initial crash near A’maree’s boutique and Rusty Pelican restaurant.

'The entire starboard side came crashing in on me and it didn’t stop,' she told CBS Los Angeles. 'It came once, twice, three times, so the whole boat, the poles, the steel, the enclosure - everything was crashing in on me.'

Dolly, who suffered a head injury and reported isn't 'seeing very clearly,' was taken to the hospital after the crash.

Video footage of the event shows Siam crashing into the boats at a high speed before backing out, almost pulling out the entire dock.

W witness Kai McCartney told CBS Los Angeles. He then went to a different area of the harbor and started doing donuts before crashing into another boat. After the second collision, Siam lost control of the boat and drove into the wall, effectively ending his joyride near the Lido Island Bridge.

'He pulled the dock off itself [and] damaged heavily some boats across the way. And it just sounded like boats were sinking,' McCartney told CBS Los Angeles.

McCartney said the impact was so loud 'everyone came out of their homes' to see what had happened.

One witness Denise Schaefer said Siam was 'out of his wits' when she saw him steal the boat, although police have not confirmed if he was under any influence. The owner of the boat, however, said the half-bottle of tequila on board is now gone. Another witness Tareq Risheq told KTLA he saw Siam make his final crash and said he was 'hurt.'

'I saw the guy freaking out and then he was screaming,' Risheq told KTLA. 'He was laying down and the Harbor Patrol and the Coast Guard and the sheriff all came and surrounded him.

'They basically hopped on and went upstairs on the bridge and he was laying down and his feet were barely moving. After a while, they got him up and put him in handcuffs and took him in.'

The extent of his injuries are unknown.

Authorities have said the boat was being serviced at the time of the theft and the keys were on board. The person serving the boat had stepped away for a moment and that's when Siam stole the boat.

The boat will temporarily be held in the Sheriff’s Harbor Patrol Division yard in Corona del Mar and did sustain damage on the side and bow of the ship.

'Something with this kind of damage is an isolated incident and is pretty rare,' Lieutenant Ryan Anderson told the Los Angeles Times.

He is due back in court on March 14 at Central Jail Court in Orange County, according to his booking information