Brits admit Australian penguin-napping

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BRISBANE, Australia, May 2 (UPI) -- Two young Britons who stole a penguin from an Australian theme park paid a large fine Wednesday after pleading guilty.

Rhys Owen Jones, 21, and Keri Mules, 20, were fined $1,000 Australian ($1,034 U.S.) each for trespassing, theft and keeping a protected animal, The Courier-Mail of Brisbane reported.

Dirk, a Fairy penguin, was stolen from Sea World, a popular theme park on the Queensland coast, April 14. Jones and Mules said they had been drinking heavily before they broke into the park with a group of rowdies and woke up the next day in their apartment in Southport with no idea why they had a penguin.

The pair made an attempt to care for the penguin and then released it in an area heavily populated with sharks. Dirk, cold and unhappy but alive and uneaten, was found under a jetty.

Jones and Mules were identified as the penguin-nappers when someone spotted photos on Facebook of them posing with Dirk before his release and turned them in.