‘Clever’ dingo caught stealing food from boat on K’gari

Watch a “clever” dingo get caught red handed stealing from tourists in a brazen theft.

The moment a dingo steals straight from a boat on K’gari has been captured on camera.

In a video of the theft, the dingo is seen climbing out of the boat with something in its mouth before jumping into the surf and running up the beach.

The unsuspecting tourists were left blown-away by the brazen act.

The cheeky dingo managed to get on the boat while the owners were at nearby Sunset Bar.. Photo: Facebook/Sarah Isobel

Tourists are urged to secure all food as dingoes are known to scavenge. Photo: Facebook/Sarah Isobel

“This clever dingo managed to make a few trips to the boat and back,” one wrote on social media.

“We were running down from the sunset bar to try and stop him,” it continued.

“He stole my handbag, chocolate, chips and pork crackle!”

While the tourists reacted well to the furry thief, tourists and residents on K’gari are urged to keep their food away from the dingoes.

Queensland’s Department of Environment and Science tells visitors to “never” feed dingoes and to secure all food, rubbish, fish and bait as the animals “can and will” open unsecured iceboxes, food containers or rubbish bag.

“Feeding of dingoes can also threaten their survival as they learn to associate humans with food through handouts or poorly disposed rubbish scraps. As a consequence, dingoes may become familiar and lose their natural fear of humans,” the department states on their website.

“In some situations, defending or fighting for this food may lead to dangerous behaviour being exhibited by the dingo towards people.”

Not only is the act discouraged, but it attracts significant penalties, with one man given a $2476 fine for “enticing and attempting to hand-feed” two dingoes at Eastern Beach on September 7.

The dingo strolled off into the sunset after the incident. Photo: Facebook/Sarah Isobel

“This man has made a dangerous decision to feed and interact with wongari (dingoes), and his actions could cause legacy issues on the island,” Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service’s Mike Devery said at the time.

“It can take one incident like this to set wongari on the path to habituation, and now these wongari have been fed, they might associate people with food.

“Our number one priority is to keep people on K’gari safe and conserve the population of wongari and this man has potentially put lives at risk.”

Dingo attacks and incidents are on the rise, with rangers putting down one animal this month after it attacked a woman.

The woman was forced to fight off the two dingoes with her waterbottle after they began circling and lunging at her.