Dolphin leaps into boat, breaks woman's ankles

It was a Father's Day the Frickman family will never forget, thanks to a dolphin that jumped into their boat and broke both of Mrs. Frickman’s ankles.

It was "absolutely crazy," Dirk Frickman told the Orange County Register. One minute, his family was headed back to Dana Point Harbor with several dolphins peacefully swimming next to them — the next, one of the dolphins leaped up and landed hard inside the boat, knocking over Frickman's wife, Chrissie, and hitting his daughter, Courtney. It started to flop around on Chrissie's legs, causing her to scream in agony. "I had this 350-pound dolphin in my boat," Frickman said. "There was no way to get it off the boat."

It looked like a scene out of a horror film, Frickman said, with blood gushing out of cuts on the frightened dolphin's tail and nose. He quickly called Harbor Patrol, and when an officer met them at the dock, Frickman said, "he looked at the boat and said, 'Oh, my God. I've never seen this before.'" Chrissie and Courtney were taken away by ambulance, and finally, after splashing water on the dolphin to keep it alive, Frickman and the officer were able to use a rope to get the dolphin into the ocean. "The dolphin was hopefully saved," he said. "It swam away with no problem."

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Chrissie wasn't as lucky; she spent five hours in the emergency room with two broken ankles. Her husband has been staying home to take care of her, and when he shares what happened with his business clients, no one believes him — which he completely understands. "It's totally bizarre," he said.