Shiver me timbers.

A man in a pirate mask -- complete with a fake eye patch, beard and parrot -- is suspected of stealing a safe from a Cornelius business last month, according to the Washington County Sheriff's Office. More than $4,000 in cash was believed to be inside.

Now deputies serving the small city are asking for help finding the costumed suspect, dubbed the "Masked Pirate" burglar.

The sheriff's office said deputies responded on the morning of July 23 to an overnight burglary at the Last Lap, a pub at 1515 N. Adair St. Employees showed up and learned a safe, which was believed to have held over $4,000 in cash, had been stolen, the agency said.

Deputies reviewed surveillance footage and saw the man -- clad in the kooky mask -- enter the business after hours. He wore a T-shirt only across his shoulders and held a fire extinguisher, the sheriff's office said in a news release.

The agency said he disabled the interior security camera after examining the safe and that deputies think he took the safe using a hand truck and fled in a stolen pickup truck. The agency said the truck was later found abandoned, license plates stripped, in western Washington County.

The sheriff's office asks anyone who has information to contact Cornelius deputies at 503-629-0111.

There's no word on whether authorities plan to make him walk the plank if he's apprehended.

-- Jim Ryan