The U.S. Coast Guard on Friday rescued a man from a boat struggling in the surf near the mouth of the Columbia River.

A Victoria, British Columbia, man suspected of leaving a dead fish on the porch of the Goonies house in Uppertown was arrested on Friday night for theft, hours after he was rescued from a capsizing boat near the mouth of the Columbia River.

Jericho Labonte, 35, allegedly stole the boat from the West Mooring Basin in Astoria and took it past the Columbia River Bar into the Pacific Ocean.

The U.S. Coast Guard received an emergency broadcast from the vessel, P/C Sandpiper, and sent boat and air crews.

Hazardous surf made rescue by boat dangerous, officials said, so the air crew lowered a rescue swimmer.

The vessel capsized, but the rescue swimmer was able to safely recover Labonte.

He was flown back to the Coast Guard base, where he was met by emergency crews and taken to Columbia Memorial Hospital in Astoria.

Police searched for Labonte after he was released from the hospital Friday afternoon.

A Warrenton man who owns the boat Labonte was piloting reported it stolen, according to Astoria Police Chief Stacy Kelly.

Police arrested Labonte at about 7:30 p.m. on Friday night at the warming center on S. Roosevelt Drive in Seaside, where he was staying under an alias, for theft in the first degree, endangering another person, criminal mischief in the second degree and unauthorized use of a vehicle.

A news release issued by Seaside described Labonte as a wanted fugitive out of British Columbia and a suspect in other cases.

The events on Friday followed a report to Astoria police on Wednesday that Labonte left a dead fish on the porch of the Goonies house.

He also allegedly placed stickers over camera lenses outside the residence and returned to try to remove the fish.

Jeff Keightley, the owner of Astoria Fishing Charters and Guide Service, told Northwest Sportsman magazine that he took Labonte on a guided trip Wednesday that yielded a 2-plus-foot-long lingcod.

The situation involving Labonte was widely discussed locally on social media before it took a dangerous turn on Friday.

The Coast Guard received the boat’s mayday call around 10 a.m. Friday while conducting trainings nearby, Petty Officer Michael Clark told the Associated Press.

The mayday contained no information about location or the specific problem, but the agency roughly triangulated the vessel’s location and nearby boat crews and a helicopter responded.

They found the P/C Sandpiper taking on water in 20-foot seas, Clark said.

The swimmer, Aviation Survival Technician 3rd Class John “Branch” Walton, was lowered from the helicopter by a cable. Labonte climbed onto the stern and prepared to enter the water just as a huge wave slammed the craft, throwing him into the surf. The wave struck so violently that the vessel rolled completely over and wound up floating upright.

Walton, of Greenville, South Carolina, said in an interview with the Associated Press that he planned to reach the man, get him in the water and hook him to a cable attached to the helicopter. Instead, the wave hit.

“I kind of got thrown around a little bit by the wave. When I came up I noticed the boat was pretty much in shambles,” Walton said.

He directed the helicopter to bring him to Labonte after spotting him in the surf a short distance away. The force of the wave had mostly knocked off his life jacket, Walton said.

The Coast Guard said Walton was a student of the Advanced Helicopter Rescue School. Hours after the rescue, the agency said, Walton graduated from the helicopter school.