San Francisco man who abducted his own two children on stolen yacht arrested: cops

Maffei stole a 40-foot yacht — christened the ‘Unleashed’ — and headed into open water with his children on Tuesday, authorities say

Brooklynn Maffei, 3, and son, Devin Maffei, 2.

A Bay Area father who abducted his own two children and snuck them down the California coast on a stolen yacht has been captured, Coast Guard officials said.


Christopher Maffei’s surrender late Friday night brought a suspenseful, days-long domestic kidnapping case to a close with no one physically harmed but a man’s violent, criminal past revealed.

It all started Tuesday when Maffei grabbed his children — 3-year-old daughter Brooklynn and 2-year-old son Devin — from their mother’s home and headed to an Almeada port in what authorities believe was a white, rented Ford Fusion, a local NBC affiliate reported.

At the port, Maffei stole a 40-foot yacht — christened the “Unleashed” — and headed into open water with his children, authorities said.

Chris Maffei

He was at sea for several days when a commercial fisherman who spotted the vessel tipped off police early Friday morning.

Coast Guard officials quickly located the “Unleashed” and hovered over it in a helicopter for most of the day.

They did not want to make contact too soon for fear that they might “spook (Maffei) and send him out to sea,” Coast Guard Spokesman Thomas McKenzie told the Mercury News.

Eventually, a Coast Guard cutter approached the father and started talking to him.

"He put his hands up and surrendered without incident,” McKenzie said.The children were brought to shore near the Monterey Peninsula and have been reunited with their mother, Jennifer Hipon, who told reporters she was “blown away” by the incident.

The San Francisco woman’s estranged boyfriend — and father of her children — was reportedly something of a wanderer with a violent past.

He moved to Thailand in 2010 after cutting nearly all ties to the United States, according to the Mercury News.

In 2009, he was charged with grand theft by the San Mateo County Superior Court, and in 1989 he faced a personal injury case after allegedly assaulting a woman.

After his arrest Friday, Maffei was taken back to South San Francisco, where he will face kidnapping and other charges.

The ‘Unleashed’ is the yacht Chris Maffei used to kidnap his two children and disappear of the cost of California, authorities say.