Alcohol Blamed For Penguin Kidnapping

In Sunday-morning hangover news: Rest assured that whatever happened last night, at least you didn't wake up with a penguin.

Saturday night, three guys in Queensland, Australia, broke into a Sea World to film themselves skinny-dipping in the dolphin tank. The next day, they say, they woke up with a penguin running around their apartment and absolutely no recollection of the night before.

So they did what any wildly hungover 18- to 21-year-olds would do: They filmed the penguin for a little bit, then panicked and released him into a shark-filled Gold Coast waterway. Then they boasted about it on Facebook.

It was an exciting day for Dirk, the 7-year-old fairy penguin, who was bred in captivity and part of Sea World's breeding program. According to The Telegraph, Dirk lived his own Disney movie: First he was chased by a shark, then a dog, and finally rescued by a couple of kindly humans and returned to his mate, Peaches.

The couple that spotted the fairy penguin running around the waterways thought it was odd, but unlike the drunken filmmakers, they realized that penguins are not native to Australia's estuaries and alerted the authorities.

Meanwhile, police were arresting the three stooges after one of their Facebook friends spilled the beans on the penguin caper. The culprits have been charged with an array of crimes, including trespassing and stealing a protected animal.

According to The Daily Mail, the trio intends to sell the video footage to pay for the lawyer they so desperately need.