A koi fish hangs out in the Pond Country pond during the Dogwood Arts House and Garden Show at the Knoxville Convention Center on Sunday, February 9, 2025.
Yucaipa, California – In what can only be described as one of the strangest theft cases in recent memory, a Yucaipa man has been arrested for allegedly stealing 85 Koi fish from a restaurant pond in the dead of night.
The incident unfolded early Saturday morning at the Oak House Restaurant in Yucaipa, a popular local spot on the 34000 block of Yucaipa Boulevard. According to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, surveillance footage captured two men removing dozens of the colorful, prized fish from the decorative pond outside the restaurant before fleeing in a vehicle.
The bizarre caper, quickly dubbed a “fishnapping” by locals, led to an investigation that eventually pointed authorities to 42-year-old David Smith, a resident of Yucaipa. Deputies secured a search warrant and executed it at Smith’s home, where they discovered five of the stolen Koi alive—along with evidence tying Smith to the theft. His vehicle was also confirmed to be the same one seen on the surveillance footage.
Smith was booked at the Central Detention Center in Rialto on suspicion of grand theft and is being held on $30,000 bail. As of Wednesday, the other 80 Koi remain missing, and the Sheriff’s Department has not identified the second suspect involved.
Koi, a symbol of peace and prosperity in Japanese culture, are highly valued not just for their aesthetic appeal but also for their price—individual fish can sell for hundreds or even thousands of dollars depending on their size, color, and breed. That value appears to be the motive in this unusual heist.
The owners of the Oak House Restaurant expressed both relief and frustration in a Facebook post. “Hopefully the judge will make him do time in jail, but we never [know]. For now the fishes are gone,” they wrote, speculating that the remaining fish had likely been sold off.
Though five of the victims were returned, the mystery of the vanishing koi—and what sort of black-market demand might exist for stolen pond fish—remains unsolved.
Sheriff’s officials praised the “diligent investigative efforts” that led to Smith’s arrest but did not elaborate on the scope of the ongoing investigation or whether more arrests are expected.
For now, Oak House’s pond sits quiet—and strangely emptier—while the community grapples with one of Yucaipa’s weirdest crimes in recent memory.
