Elaine Forbes (San Francisco Port)

A California city manager has been charged with prowling, unauthorised lodging and petty theft after she allegedly got drunk and attempted to steal a yacht from a local marina.

Elaine Forbes, who is the city manager for Sausalito, was taken into custody by the Marin County Sheriff’s Office on 18 July after she was found trespassing on a number of boats.

She also seemingly tried to start one of them, a 66-foot yacht called the Lisa Marie, “by manipulating levers and switches in an attempt to steal the boat”.

Bill Aubrey, the captain of the Lisa Marie, said that he called the cops after confronting Forbes while she was still aboard. Speaking to San Francisco’s KGO-TV, he said: “She had the horn going, the windshield wipers going, the spotlight going.”

Andy Cunningham, the owner of the boat, also shared details of the “unbelievable chaos” he witnessed in the cabin following the ordeal.

“[Forbes] took all my clothes and tried them on. They were inside out,” he 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.”

Forbes had reportedly gone missing before she was found aboard the vessel. The Sausalito County Council had approved a leave of absence for her on 16 July, just three weeks after she started the job. The sheriff’s office also confirmed that a missing persons report was filed on her behalf the day before she was found.

In a statement, the City of Sausalito said: “This is a difficult development for our City staff and our community. Because this is now an active and ongoing investigation by the Marin County Sheriff’s Office, the City will not comment on the specific allegations.”

Sam Singer, a spokesperson for Forbes’ family, described her as a “highly respected public servant” and shared that she was experiencing a mental health crisis. Singer also noted that Forbes herself lives on a boat, which might have caused her some confusion.

“As the facts become clearer and Elaine obtains legal and healthcare counsel in the coming hours and days, we hope people will respond with compassion, patience and respect for her and her family during an extraordinarily difficult time,” Singer said.

Singer also shared that Forbes is going through a divorce from her long-term partner, Angela Calvillo, who is a clerk for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

The New York Post reported on 20 July that Calvillo has since visited Forbes at Marin County Jail, but did not post her $50,000 bail.