The legend of a surfboard-stealing sea otter of Santa Cruz, California, has circulated online for years.
Amused social media users have spread stories about the outlaw otter on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and X since at least 2023.
A children's book inspired by the legend, "Amelia Otter's Mischief in the Water," was published in 2024 and businesses have even released merchandise featuring the otter.
The surfboard-stealing otter is real, according to Santa Cruz locals who have captured videos of her, reputable news reports, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and state and federal wildlife officials. She's known as "Otter 841." As such, we have rated this claim true.
We first covered Otter 841 in 2025. Snopes readers searched the website for information about her again in 2026, prompting us to look back on her story.
Wildlife authorities working with the Monterey Bay Aquarium attempted to capture 841 in July 2023 in response to reports of her "concerning and unusual behaviors," including her obsession with surfers and their boards. She evaded their efforts and remained free. In October 2023, she gave birth to a pup, prompting officials to announce that they no longer had plans to capture her.
California Fish and Wildlife directed inquiries about 841, including how many surfboard-stealing incidents have been documented, to the federal authorities at U.S. Fish and Wildlife, which manages the sea otter species. U.S. Fish and Wildlife responded to our inquiry after publication by saying they had nothing else to add about 841. The agency also shared a 2024 article with tips for encouraging aggressive sea otters to back off.
Santa Cruz photographer Mark Woodward, who helped 841 become famous, said in a direct message on X in 2025 that he has photos of 841 on about a dozen different surfboards over the course of a few months in 2023.
In mid-October 2025, surfers reported at least two incidents of otter-orchestrated surfboard thievery, according to The New York Times — but it was unclear whether 841 was the mastermind behind either case.
841 was born to a pregnant sea otter brought into protective care after being illegally fed and approaching humans in the wild. Her caretakers transferred her to Monterey Bay Aquarium and released her in 2020, according to an email from the aquarium's sea otter program manager, Jess Fujii.
"She did not demonstrate any unusual behaviors before her release and was in the wild for over a year before reports of interactions began," Fujii said.
Authorities have not pinned down an exact cause for 841's kleptomania, but Fujii said in a 2023 news release that hormonal changes or being fed by humans can lead to aggressive behavior in female sea otters.
841 has a blue tracking tag with a radio transmitter, placed before her release into the wild, that helps authorities identify her. Her last confirmed appearance was in summer 2024, per Fujii's October 2025 email.
Fujii said there's many possible reasons she hasn't been seen since, "such as loss of visually identifiable tags or movement to a new area." Woodward said he heard from several sea otter-related organizations that 841 lost her tracker, likely due to chewing it off.
Woodward captured images of a sea otter getting on boards two days in a row during the week of Oct. 13, 2025, but the photos weren't clear enough to determine whether it was 841, he said — especially because she was missing her tracker. He said the authorities he'd spoken to thought it was likely 841 was back, but that there wasn't enough information to know for sure.
"The characteristics are similar to 841 and it's possible it's her, but again, there's no way of knowing," he later said in an X post.
Thus, as of this writing, 841 remained at large.