A California city chief allegedly caught trying to steal a yacht had ransacked clothes, ate food and got through four bottles of wine on board, the owner has claimed.

Sausalito City Manager Elaine Forbes, 53, was arrested early Saturday after authorities said she boarded multiple vessels at the marina—including a 66-foot yacht investigators believe she may have been attempting to take, according to ABC7.

Owner of the Lisa Marie, Andy Cunningham, said he was stunned by the state of his property after police contacted him about the incident.

“I came down here, police met me at the boat, and we discovered unbelievable chaos on my boat,” Cunningham said.

Clothing had allegedly been pulled from storage and appeared to have been tried on, while food and alcohol were also consumed.

“She took all my clothes and tried them on. They were inside out,” Cunningham said. “There was a jar of maraschino cherries she dumped into a shoebox. She had drunk a lot of alcohol, four bottles of our wine.”

The strange incident unfolded just hours after a missing-person report was filed for Forbes on Friday, according to the Marin County Sheriff’s Office.

It also came only days after the Sausalito City Council approved a leave of absence for Forbes—who had been serving as city manager for approximately three weeks.

A family spokesperson said Forbes was experiencing a mental health crisis at the time of the incident.

“Elaine Forbes, who’s a highly respected public servant, had a mental health crisis,” family spokesperson Sam Singer said.

Singer said Forbes has also been going through a divorce from her longtime partner, Angela Calvillo—clerk of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

He added that Forbes lives on a houseboat near the marina and suggested her condition may have contributed to the alleged incident.

“She does, in fact, live on a houseboat,” Singer explained. “In her mental health crisis, she may have believed she was on her houseboat but didn’t recognize it wasn’t hers.”

Before joining the City of Sausalito, Forbes served as director of the Port of San Francisco, a position she resigned from last September after nine years.

Despite the wild encounter, Aubrey said he has no hard feelings toward Forbes.

“Am I angry? No,” he said. “Do I feel bad about what she’s going through? Yes.”

Forbes remains in custody at the Marin County Jail and is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday morning.

Source: https://nypost.com/2026/07/21/us-news/sausalito-city-manager-elaine-forbes-despicable-behavior-inside-yacht/