12 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
Victor the lobster
Remembering the life of the Seaside Aquarium mascot who became national news
By REBECCA HERREN
COAST WEEKEND
I
t was early in 1993 when the
Seaside Aquarium became the new
owners of one very large lobster.
The crustacean was originally caught
off the coast of Maine by commercial
fishermen for Safeway and had been
placed in the holding tank to be sold.
However, it was a large lobster and, as
any lobster devotee knows, lobsters are
sold by the pound.
At April’s History & Hops lecture
presented by the Seaside Museum and
Historical Society at Seaside Brewing
Co., Keith Chandler, general manag-
er of the Seaside Aquarium, recalled
the story of the much-admired lobster
named Victor.
The Safeway store manager at the
time, Vickie Forney, removed the
lobster from the confines of the tank
and donated it to the aquarium. Chan-
dler said they held a name-the-lobster
contest and Victor as in “victory over
death,” suggested by a local nun, was
chosen.
“She was a nun and I wasn’t going
to go against the church,” Chandler
quipped, adding the name was also to
honor Forney who was kind enough
to rescue Victor from the tank and an
ignoble death.
At the aquarium, Victor was placed
in a shallow tank for all to admire.
Much like many firsts for the aquarium,
Victor became headline news.
Caught red-handed
It was Sunday, Sept. 4, 1994, of
Labor Day weekend, Chandler recalled,
and Becky Bierly was taking tickets
when she noticed a man walking out
with Victor under his arm. Frantically,
Bierly called Chandler who, with a
baseball bat in hand, gave chase.
Chandler spotted the thief with
Victor under his arm running down
the Prom. Chandler is in quick pursuit
and eventually confronts the man who
After the death of Victor the lobster in
September 1994, Bell Buoy in Seaside
displayed its ‘moment of mourning’ sign
to passersby.
SEASIDE AQUARIUM PHOTOS
Tom Thies exams Victor the lobster after it was stolen and dropped by a hungry thief
in September 1994.
drops the lobster and retreats. Though
it appeared to be in good shape, Victor
landed on a curb and had cracked his
shell. Unfortunately, there was no happy
ending for Victor the lobster. He died
four days later, succumbing to internal
injuries.
Police found Terry Lutz, 35, of
Estacada and arrested him on a theft
charge. The case was handed over to a
newly sworn-in Clatsop County District
Attorney Josh Marquis. One of Mar-
quis’ passions is animal rights, Marquis
said in a recent phone conversation.
Unfortunately, animal rights laws in
the 1990s were not what they are now,
Marquis pointed out.
“I couldn’t get (Lutz) for cruelty to
animals because you can boil lobster
when they’re alive,” Marquis explained.
Victor was a lobster that’s only
worth so much per pound according to
the law, he said. No one knew how to
care for a lobster “that the law considers
a giant insect.”
No local veterinarian was trained in
treating lobsters, he added.
The best Marquis could do was to
charge Lutz with theft II, a misdemean-
or. Lutz pleaded guilty to second-degree
theft, received 18 months of proba-
tion, ordered to perform 120 hours of
community service, and pay $800 to the
aquarium.
Going global
Lobsters are known to live more than
120 years, Chandler said. At the time of
Victor’s death, he weighed 28 pounds
and was estimated to be 80 years old.
When asked why Lutz stole the
lobster, Marquis answered, “He was
hungry.”
Marquis said he is not a vegetarian
and enjoys eating lobster, but, as he
continued, “anyone knows you don’t
want to eat a lobster that old.”
The news about the abduction,
capture and death of Victor the lobster
traveled worldwide. “It was staggering
that the news traveled all the way to
Australia,” Marquis said. “It’s hilarious.
It was so bizarre that this has gotten
more publicity than any other case I
worked on.”
True, the news went global. Paul
Harvey, a well-known radio broadcast-
er reported the theft to his audiences.
Marquis received a call from Susan
Orlean, a writer for The New Yorker, to
fact check the story. Orlean mentions
the case in a 2002 article titled, “The
Lady and the Tigers” as well as in her
book, “My Kind of Place.” There’s also
a paragraph mentioned in “The Mam-
moth Book of Weird News.”
As for Terry Lutz, more trouble fol-
lowed. It seems he has a long history of
violence and a very long criminal record.
Before the abduction of Victor, Lutz was
convicted of animal abuse in 1988 when
he shot an officer’s canine partner. He re-
ceived jail time in 1982 for child neglect,
and in 1996, Lutz received 30 years for
attempted murder, and is currently in
Snake River prison until 2022.
Victor is fondly remembered. After
his death, Victor was sent to Kent Israel
Taxidermy and is on full display inside
a closed case for all to, once again,
admire. CW