Estonian guards respond to alert, find seahorse figurine gliding in from Russia

TALLINN - An inflatable pink seahorse figurine gliding over Lake Peipsi, the largest lake on the border between Estonia and Russia, caused an alert for Estonian border guards on the night between Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Police and Border Guard Board said in a social media post that the staff of its South Prefecture are used to seeing all sorts of creatures in their area of responsibility. Bears and elk swimming across the lake are not an uncommon sight on surveillance cameras, wild boars, wolves and lynxes often walk on the border strip, and also eagles and other large birds appear on their screens quite often.

"But last night, border guards were surprised by an unprecedented occurrence. At around 2 a.m., guards responded to an alert near the temporary line of control, where an illegal border crossing from Russia into Estonia had been recorded. The crew that responded were greatly surprised to find out that the violator was a pink-colored seahorse," the South Prefecture wrote on social media.

Although it took the hovercraft crew some effort to apprehend the airborne felon, they eventually managed to do it and brought the creature to their base.  

"No matter whether you cross the border driving, swimming, boating or flying, the eyes of border guards are everywhere and equally sharp on border violators in all shapes and sizes," the post said in conclusion.