Quote:A woman has been jailed after stealing a ferry while drunk and high on drugs and shouting ‘I’m
Jack Sparrow’.

Woman jailed after drunkenly stealing ferry and claiming she was a pirateAlison Whelan, 51, had been on a two-day bender before the incident (Picture: SWNS)

She has the wild hair and black mascara but that’s as far as the similarities go between Alison Whelan and Johnny Depp .

But that didn’t stop her stealing a ferry after a two-day bender and shouting: ‘I’m Jack Sparrow’.

The 51-year-old’s boat was well and truly rocked by a combination of hallucinogenic nightshade plants and Lambrini wine.

And, clearly feeling indestructible, she and a friend staggered aboard the double-deck 100-seat ferry Dart Princess in Devon.

After untying mooring ropes, because she kept tripping over them, the 14m (45ft) long boat started drifting as the sozzled pair ‘noticed the hotels getting a long way away’.

Emergency services also heard Whelan shout ‘I’m a pirate’ as the ferry crashed into other boats before coming to rest upstream on the River Dart an hour later.

Afterwards, she optimistically told police she ‘would have ended up in St Tropez’ if she hadn’t been caught.

Witnesses said the boat drifted ‘like a pinball machine’ down the river as Whelan shouted, ‘I’m Jack Sparrow, I’m a pirate’, Torquay magistrates’ court heard.

Ambulance technician Peter Jordan said: ‘We saw it drifting down the estuary. I heard a female voice saying they were pirates and asking ‘‘what are we going to do now?’’’

At least 30 ambulance, police, coastguard and RNLI officers were at the scene and watched as the ferry careered into a £70,000 fibreglass catamaran called Force Majeure causing hundreds of pounds worth of damage.

When the officers joined lifeboat crews on the river and tried to intercept the boat, Whelan hurled abuse at them shouting, ‘What are you going to do now?’ and ‘I believe this is out of your jurisdiction’.

Whelan, who caused £1,500 damage to the ferry, pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicle taking and was jailed for 122 days.

She later admitted she could get a ‘bit cocky’ when drunk but said she panicked when she saw the police.

Moonlapse Wrote:We honestly need more news like this in the Current Events section.