SAMMAMISH, Wash. » A fast-paddling good Samaritan in a kayak helped sheriff’s deputies in Washington state nab a suspected Christmas mail thief.

Q13 reports deputies received multiple calls on Wednesday morning that a man and a woman were going through mailboxes around the town of Sammamish.

While deputies were on their way, residents spotted a car filled with mail and used their cars to block it in.

The suspected mail thieves ran off, and one was caught immediately. The other fled into a nearby pond with a kayak he grabbed out of a yard.

A resident grabbed his own kayak, caught up to the suspect and convinced him to return to shore, where he was arrested.

The sheriff’s office says the suspect didn’t get very far because he was using his hands to paddle.