(Via The Daily Mail) A Chinese warship has captured an underwater US Navy drone right in front of the eyes of the crew of an American ship in the South China sea, prompting a government official to say, ‘they stole it’.

The incident has triggered a formal demarche from the United States and a demand for its return, a US defense official told Reuters on Friday.

The capture – the first of its kind in recent memory – took place on December 15 northwest of Subic Bay just as the USNS Bowditch, an oceanographic survey ship, was about to retrieve the unmanned, underwater vehicle.

When the Bowditch stopped to collect the underwater equipment, a Chinese warship that had been following it dropped a boat into the water the pulled up alongside the US vessel and snatched the drone, according to CNN. (read more)