Two "waddling vagrants" were detained by police in New Zealand after breaking into a sushi stand for the second time, possibly in search of a nest and a free meal.

The culprits: two small blue penguins.

Wellington police said Monday that they had responded twice in recent days near the same sushi bar at a train station after penguins were spotted near the truck. It started Saturday night when police received their first call of a penguin on the road.

"Police responded and with some help from members of the public released the penguin, described as 'little and blue', back into the sea," the department wrote in a Facebook post.

Early Monday, a similar call came in nearby, but this time, the penguin brought a friend.

"Constable Zhu responded and, after sensing something fishy, established that the penguins were nesting underneath a food truck near the station," the department wrote. "The waddling vagrants were removed from their sushi stand refuge."

Sushi stand co-owner Long Lin, who called police the second time, said he heard sounds from a water tank. When he investigated, he saw the penguins.

"And then I was like, 'Oh my God, it's a penguin,'" he told the Associated Press. "I was panicked. I didn't know what to do."

Lin said he grabbed the penguins and kept them inside the store until police came. Along with conservation officers, authorities were able to remove the birds and place them in a special nesting box at the harbor nearby.

Jack Mace with the Department of Conservation told RNZ that it was normal behavior that the penguins were exhibiting, as many are pairing up in July and looking for a place to lay their eggs for August.

While the new nest that conservation officers gave them is a few hundred feet away and closer to the water, conservation volunteer Mike Rumble told RNZ that penguins "will always return to where they possibly were nesting."

"I wouldn't be surprised if the owner of the sushi bar says, 'They're back.'"

Follow USA TODAY's Ryan Miller on Twitter @RyanW_Miller