SAN FRANCISCO -
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A Northern California
man arrested after allegedly abducting his two children and trying to
evade authorities by stealing a sailboat and sailing along the Northern
California coast was being held on $200,000 bail, authorities said.
Christopher Maffei was
booked on two counts of kidnapping, two counts of child endangerment and
two counts of parental abduction after his arrest Friday, South San
Francisco police Sgt. Bruce McPhillips said.
Maffei, 43, forcibly took
his 3-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son from the their maternal
grandmother, Jean Hipon, while the children's mother, Jennifer Hipon,
was in a Redwood City court on Tuesday seeking a restraining order
against him, McPhillips said. Maffei is the former boyfriend of Jennifer
Hipon.
"The mother was at the
courthouse filing a restraining order at the time he took the children
and the maternal grandmother attempted to stop him," McPhillips said.
The FBI was notified once
it was determined that Maffei had crossed county lines and stolen a boat
in Alameda County, then the U.S. Coast Guard was called in once he
sailed the boat to the coast, McPhillips said.
The Coast Guard and FBI began tracking the 40-foot sailboat Unleashed, which was sailed from a harbor in Alameda on Tuesday.
The children's rescue south
of Monterey Bay around 8 p.m. Friday came hours after the Coast Guard
had dispatched a HC-130 Hercules plane, a helicopter and two cutters to
follow the boat as it slowly sailed down the coastline, Coast Guard
officials said.
"A Coast Guard cutter
approached the vessel and just started talking to them," Coast Guard
spokesman Thomas McKenzie said. "He put his hands up and surrendered
without incident."
Maffei's daughter Brooklynn and son Devin were examined by medics before a reunion with their mother, McKenzie said.
Jennifer Hipon told television reporters that she was "blown away" that her estranged boyfriend took the children.
"It's surreal that he actually did this," she said.
South San Francisco police
say that after running off with the children, Maffei drove to the harbor
in Alameda and left on the sailboat. He sailed the boat out the Golden
Gate, and headed down the coast, police said.
A fisherman spotted the
sailboat off the San Mateo County coast on Friday, and law enforcement
started a slow-speed chase as they tried to intercept the vessel, police
said.
McKenzie said the stolen boat has been recovered and its owner would be responsible for getting it back to Alameda.
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