Talk about engine trouble.

Friday afternoon, Warrenton resident Ron Neva found a 7-foot long, 400-pound sea lion crammed between the engine compartment and front bumper of his Ford pick up truck.

Neva, the owner of Tsunami Seafood in Seaside, said he often drives on the beach during storms looking for injured birds to take to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Olney.

When he spotted a sea lion motionless in the surf about a mile south of Sunset Beach at about 2 p.m., he decided to take a closer look to see if it was injured or dead.

Walking out into the surf, Neva noticed the animal slightly stirring. He was about to take a closer look but had to scamper back about 50 yards to avoid a sneaker wave.

The wave swept around his truck. When it receded, Neva saw the sea lion’s head sticking out from underneath the truck’s bumper near the right front tire and its rear flipper poking out of the wheel well of the left front tire.

“I couldn’t believe it,” he said.

Neva’s first reaction was to call 9-1-1. He was told an Oregon State trooper would try and get out to the beach to assist him. After a while, Neva learned that heavy surf created by Friday’s storm was limiting access to the beach and a trooper likely wouldn’t be there anytime soon.

“It became pretty obvious that nobody was going to get there,” he said.

As waves softened the sand around his truck, Neva watched as his 1990s model, full-size F-150 sink deeper and deeper into the sand with the sea lion beneath it. The sea lion, which was a female, had been thrust into the truck with enough force that the plastic molding beneath the bumper on the right side almost cracked off.

“I had to work fast to get that weight off of her,” he said.

Neva said he decided to take things into his own hands. He grabbed a clamming shovel from his truck bed and began to dig beneath the sea lion, trying to force it out.

“We had eye-to-eye contact of about six inches,” he said.

Eventually, Neva said he was able to pull the sea lion free. It didn’t appear to have any injuries as it moved back into the surf.

Then, in what he described as possibly the most bizarre part of the encounter, Neva said the sea lion waddled back to a few feet from his truck and watched him with apparent interest as he tried to free the

vehicle.

After using the shovel to dig his truck out, Neva said he laid down some sticks to get enough traction to get free.

“I’ve never been so relieved to see that truck moving,” he said.

Neva came back to the beach the next day, but couldn’t find the sea lion; he said he hopes it’s doing all right.