Houston Museum Intruders Use Getaway Boat, Disappear Into City’s Storm Drains – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

Two people broke into a museum in Houston Tuesday evening and used a getaway boat to evade police before disappearing into the city’s storm drainage system.

Police were called to a report of a break-in at the Museum of Fine Arts in River Oaks around 7:30 p.m., Police Lieutenant Larry Crowson said. The museum told KTRK-TV that a man and a woman entered the Bayou Bend exhibition through a basement window and set off the burglar alarm.

Officers saw two people run out of the building into a motorboat waiting on the banks of the Buffalo Bayou that meanders through the center of town and runs alongside the museum.

Police units are spreading across overpasses at either end of the spot where the couple was last spotted, Crowson said. A video posted on social media showed a police helicopter circling the area.

Central officials K9 and FOX are searching for burglars near Memorial Park. Suspects broke into a museum and then fled on a boat in Buffalo Bayou. 202 pic.twitter.com/OW4U92ZIsi

– Houston Police (@houstonpolice) March 17, 2021

A dive team that joined in the chase discovered the couple hiding in the boat next to an opening along the bayou, Crowson said. The two then jumped off the boat and into a nearby drainage tunnel.

Patrolmen and a K-9 unit entered the drainage canal to track the two, but reappeared a short time later after losing radio contact with other officers, Crowson said.

Nobody was injured and no works of art were recorded, the museum was posted on Twitter Wednesday evening.

Thank you for any concerns. Fortunately, no one was injured, no damage was done, and no artwork was recorded during the break-in at Bayou Bend last night.

– Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (@MFAH) March 17, 2021

No arrests have been made to date.

Investigators hope the boat is registered with Texas Parks & Wildlife, which can help track down its owner.

According to its website, the Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens has “one of the finest display cases of American furniture, silver, ceramics and paintings in the world”.