This is a pretty wacky story coming from the Orange County Register’s cop reporter Sal Hernandez.

First, there were all the crazy stories about the sea lions learning how to jump on boats (eventually sinking a bunch of them). Now apparently, they’ve learned how to drive the vessels!

Here’s what Hernandez wrote about the event:

The three deputies had just left a Newport Harbor dock after responding to calls of juveniles smoking pot and a young sea lion trying to bite people. They tied up the boat while they checked the dock. The sea lion, which was snapping at people, refused to stay in the water when the deputies tried to shoo it away.

Eventually, the deputies decided to put the sea lion into the fire boat and take it out to sea, where they would try to set it free.

While deputies maneuvered the boat at the main controls, the sea lion took a seat at the foul-weather station, a secondary control station for the boat.

“It ran into the driver’s seat, flapped its flipper, turned the lights on and honked the horn,” Slikker said.

At one point, the sea lion was able to get the throttle to go full speed — in reverse.

Read the full story here, and you gotta check out this video: