How to steal a shark...

Maybe the con artist could pose as a marine veterinarian who convinces the owner that his shark has some kind of weird disease and needs treatment far away (like SeaWorld or somewhere prestigious sounding), and then instead of transporting the shark to shark-hospital, the thief steals it.

Another thought: the con artist poses as a researcher and dives into the tank with the shark. While in there, he cuts a hole in the floor/wall of the tank and forces the shark to swim through. On the other side of the hole could be a tank for transporting, or a sewer line, or whatever you want. How the con artist leaves the scene could be up to you as well.

I pondered something similar to those (especially the hole into a sewer). But I wasn't sure exactly, so I came for ideas. Strangely, I thought of a transport vehicle, and I thought of a sewer escape... but I didn't think of a transport vehicle IN a sewer for the escape. I think that might be the best bet. However, now I gotta think of a way to get the shark through the floor without the water leaving the aquarium, too. That's the tough part.

If the shark is placed into something that is filled with water (ie a tank, or a temporary room in the transport vehicle), the water will not leave the aquarium.

I take it the shark has to be alive when it gets there? Otherwise, it'd be easy, just kill it and move the corpse.

You might be able to drug it by putting something in its water or food, although sharks have such alien systems, I dunno what would work on them. This is going to take your con artist some research.

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If you could knock it out, maybe you could place it in a shark sized mini tank on wheels, get it into a van, and change the water every now and then. That might kill it though.

Con artists work based on greed. The "owner" of the shark has to help move it - because he thinks there is something in it for him that is worth more to him than the shark being in the old underground aquarium. He has to move the shark gladly - almost as if it is his idea.

Here's an article on how sharks are moved:

http://www.dynastymarine.net/manuscript.html

Here's a video showing how some sharks are captured and moved:

http://videos.howstuffworks.com/discovery/37425-sharks-under-glass-shark...

And then maybe you can move it the way they moved that whale in Star Trek III, they just beamed it aboard.

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in Cameron Crowe's “Almost Famous”

Damn it! I was just about to suggest that! :C

I wanted to add my two cents. This is from Wikipedia but I saw the 3rd and 4th Great White when I was living there.

"Prior to August 1981, no attempt to keep a great white shark in captivity lasted longer than 11 days. In August 1981, a shark was held for 16 days at SeaWorld San Diego before being released into the wild.[33] This notion of containing a live Great White at SeaWorld Orlando was used as a plot-point for the 1983 film Jaws 3-D.

In 1984, shortly before its opening day, the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, California housed its first great white shark, which died after 10 days. In July 2003, Monterey researchers captured a small female and kept it in a large netted pen off of Malibu for five days. They had the rare success of getting the shark to feed in captivity before its release.[34] It was not until September 2004 that the aquarium was able to be the first to place a great white on long-term exhibit. A young female, who was caught off the coast of Ventura, was kept in the aquarium's massive 3,800,000-litre (1,000,000 US gal) Outer Bay exhibit for 198 days before she was successfully released back into the wild in March 2005. She was tracked for 30 days after her early morning release.[35] On the evening of August 31, 2006 the aquarium introduced a second shark to the Outer Bay exhibit. The juvenile male caught outside Santa Monica Bay on August 17,[36] had its first official meal in captivity (a large salmon steak) on September 8, 2006 and as of that date, the shark was estimated to be 1.72 metres (68 in) and to weigh approximately 47 kilograms (100 lb). He was released on January 16, 2007 after 137 days in captivity.

In addition, Monterey Bay Aquarium housed a third Great White, a juvenile male, for 162 days between August 27, 2007 through February 5, 2008. On arrival, he was 1.4 meters (4 ft 9 in) long and weighed 30.6 kilograms (67.5 lb). He grew to 1.8 meters (5 ft 10 in) and 64 kilograms (140 lb) at release. A fourth Great White, a juvenile female, was introduced to Monterey's Outer Bay Exhibit on August 27, 2008. While she was swimming well, the shark fed only one time during her stay and was tagged and released on September 7, 2008. A fifth White Shark, another juvenile female, was captured near Malibu on August 12, 2009 and introduced to the Outer Bay tank on August 26. [37]

Probably the most famous great white shark to be kept in captivity was a 2.4 metres (7.9 ft) female named "Sandy", which in August 1980 became the only great white shark to be housed at the California Academy of Sciences' Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco, California. She was returned to the wild because she would not eat anything given to her and constantly bumped against the walls.[38]"

You might want to make sure that you are far enough in the future that they have figured out how to keep it alive long enough to steal it.

Well, as a response to the one above and others, I was thinking, which doesn't happen too often, if the old man(Is he really old? Beacuase I just took it for granted right now, mostly because I associate gulible people with age) is getting old and needs help with the shark, so he hires one of the thieves to help him and one of the few time's he's away, they steal the shark through a method I do not know of. Also, the great white could be a young shark(maybe easier to transport) and their employer is trying to sell it off for money. I don't know who would want to buy a shark unless you're going to put it abouve your fireplace or it ate something valuable... But if not, I'm really sorry for wasting your page! Oh, and I just read it and I'm extra sorry it you didn't get any of it!

Some sharks (even great whites, to some extent, according to a Shark Week program I watched) can be stunned and put into a hypnotic trance by touching the nerve endings on their snout called Ampullae of Lorenzini, often combined with turning them upside down. The video I saw of this happening to Great White allowed the diver to swim/ride alongside the shark's dorsal fin for a little while; it became very calm.

For it to be a great con, something has to happen that makes everything seem alright, but really isn't. You could use a red herring (not literally...) and give the caretake a false positive of preventing a theft or break in, while the real theft happens simultaneously under his very nose. Or you could have something like Blade Runner, where real animals are now so rare and expensive that genetically engineered clones have taken their place. The thieves could replace the real shark with a fake one (somehow identifiable, so the caretake will realize at the end) or offer to sell the caretake another "real" shark, using the opportunity to switch the real one with the fake one. Fake sharks could be engineered to die quickly, as well.

I think this is a great idea! Maybe you could have the theif try to "steal" the shark. When the owner realizes someone's after his prized possession, he might take up the con artist's offer to relocate the shark. You could then move the shark easier, unworried by being secretive.

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Sewers: too cramped. Use a nice quiet transport which I think may fit in well with a post-apoc setup: Hot-air balloon.
Sewer route can be the diversion, while the sky is the escape.

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You could use a tanker truck, y'know, the ones you carry water in. How big will the shark actually BE?

If the aquarium is on the sea coast, it may have an underwater door to the sea/ocean that can be used. The con artist can have a cage on the other side and simply drag the shark in the cage hauled by a boat to another location. Might be the simplest way to affect a heist.

An author spends months writing a book, and maybe puts his heart's blood into it, and then it lies about unread till the reader has nothing else in the world to do. -- W. Somerset Maugham

Something else to consider is how the shark is housed. In Seaworld there is more than enough room for Shamu and others to live (mostly) but if a great white is housed, how much room will the owner need to allow adequate room for it to live. I think of Ace Ventura and the unusually small tank housing a shark.

There also needs to be a regular schedule for procuring food and maintaining the "tank". Is there a time when it is being examined by a vet? Many times the animals are sedated and raised from the water (for weighing mostly) and then blood samples and such can be procured. Any of these situations open the door for a switch or theft.

Even maintained water like in Seaworld looks black at night. A night theft can leave the owner oblivious until morning. Maybe the owner will be away on a trip and return by that evening, leaving the entire day open for the theft.

Ummm...instead of drugging the shark maybe we could drug the owner. Just sayin...

In life...you're never just standing still.

I love this concept! Gaining the owner's trust and then using it to mislead him. It would be great if the owner even paid for the arrangements to move his prized possession right into the hands of the con artists. Which would make a bit more sense, because if anyone would have the means of transporting a shark post-apoc, it would likely be the person who owns said sharky.

I don't think Sharks that large actually live when they are in captivity. The only places that have been able to maintain them for any period have been large scale aquariums that can afford huge tanks with a constant source of flowing water. Though the great white is pretty spectacular, I would actually consider choosing a different but equally stunning aquatic creature, which is more believably contained, especially in a post-apoc world where resources are probably meager. Or maybe, a smaller shark. Tiger sharks are still really cool, and could provide an opening for a really brutal death scene.

With that said, if you keep the great white I agree that tricking the owner into voluntarily moving it would be the coolest way to set up the heist. Something about using a big truck to move it just feels very "Free Willy", and cheesy. The sewer is too small also. Maybe they have an amazing shrink ray, and they can just debigulate the shark and carry it in a pocket aquarium until they get there...if you feel like stretching the suspension of disbelief!

Keep in mind that Great White Sharks can not breathe using buccal pumping, where they suck water into their mouth and then force it through their gills. They use ram ventilation, where the act of swimming "rams" water into their mouth and they let it flow through their gills. So, they need to keep swimming to breathe. Transporting them in an enclosed tanker, would not allow them the room to swim. However, there may be a work around for that.

In the 1970s, scientists investigated what came to be known as the Caves of the Sleeping Sharks in Isla Mujeres, Mexico. Inside the caves were motionless reef sharks, which are normally obligate ram ventilators. The scientists determined that the water in the caves had an extremely high amount of oxygen and reduced salinity. These conditions likely made it easier for even these sharks to breathe without moving. So, you could reproduce the water conditions from that cave to help keep the shark alive during transport.

Take risks, not to escape life, but to prevent life from escaping.

Most everything I wanted to say has been said already, but I must comment that I worked in an aquarium in England which did have a shark stolen from! It was a tiny baby bamboo shark that was only half a foot long, but none-the-less, they stole a friking shark!

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Alright. Can't move out of water and can't transport in truck. What was the process that brought the shark into the owner's possesson in the first place? Could the owner maybe have an enclosure by a large body of water that the shark found itself stranded in?

If this is so, then conveniently place a dam or a water main (rupture) and the water levels will rise, providing a thief with a means of luring the GW to a new locale.

The trick would be to keep the owner oblivious to the rising water until it is too late.

I'm thinking nothing less than a special sea-animal or even special shark holding tank would do.

As for the owner, getting his consent would be great, but another option is to get him to go away for a day, invent some reason he would have to leave town, send him on a wild goose chase, maybe having somthing to do with his family (mom is sick and dying) or money (Could you deliver this package to our friend? We'll pay you, and even look after your shark while you're gone) or something.

Try a Zambezi shark, also known as a Bull Shark, instead. The females can reach 4 meters, and they are very aggressive. They are one of the few marine sharks that can also tolerate fresh water, and have been known to attack people many miles upstream in a river.

With the fresh water tolerance, they might be much easier to keep alive.

Wes

I saw shark in the heading and my heart began to glow....
Anyways! There are several ways to MOVE the shark (I'm not that good of a conner...) but I feel obligated to tell you that a great white shark has never been held in captivity for no longer then about 10 days, but I take it that this might be a fantasy novel so that might not matter
(just in case, other dangerous sharks are the bull and tiger shark)
but, I know if it is succesfully conned, aquariums use this net thing to move large creatures, it creates a half circle (I believe one end is blocked/ you can block the openings) that the shark would fit into nicely, lift it out of the water, and into a big truck. Often a hose is put into the sharks mouth (GOOD LUCK!!! :D ) that will keep it alive (out of water) so that the water can pass through its gills. I believe there is a spot near the tail that will "knock out" the shark when you apply enough pressure to it.

Should you (or anyone who happens to see this!) have anymore shark questions nanomail me. I'm sea-life extrodinare (obsessor, perhaps!!!!!!) and would be happy to help!

Distraction for the win. Or kill the guy. WITH HIS OWN SHARK }=D

The idea of putting a hose in the thing's mouth is great. I don't want to write your book for you, but... Maybe the con artist or thief has some awesome background in the ninja arts (or sumfing). So, he does the touch-nose-flip-shark maneuver, shoves a hose through the gills slits, and drags it up to the trasport. While he's in the mouth, adjusting the hose, there's a dramatic moment when the shark seems to be waking up, with the guy inside.

Not a sentence.

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If you use any sort of dragging method, keep in mind that a shark with water run backwards through it's gills gets nothing out of it and dies. Also, as an added incentive, if the con men somehow don't need the shark alive or something - shark fins are considered a delicacy in many countries.

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Big rig sealed with caulk and tarpoline. They would have to cut through the top of the trailer to put the shark in and make sure that the door to the rear wasn't leaking.

Then they just have to both dress up like lady sharks and seduce the shark, tricking him into coming with them.

How about a complicated series of pipes and tunnels leading from the aquarium back to the thief's house using sewers, water supplies.

I suppose you also have the possibility the shark may escape!

Aidan