[imagesource: Flickr]

Coast guards off the Polish coast responded to a distress signal from a stranded boat last weekend, only to find a very suspicious-looking crew with underwater equipment straight out of a James Bond movie.

The three divers identified themselves as Spaniards and told the coastguard that they had been trying to start their 13-foot speedboat for almost six hours before they contacted the authorities.

Why exactly they waited so long to call for help was never explained, but authorities found some interesting gear on their boat.

CBS News reports that the men explained that they were diving for amber on the coast of Gdansk, but according to the rescuers, the gear they were using was not made for ‘amber diving’:

Seasoned amber hunters interviewed by Polish media said one more thing didn’t add up: The men had an underwater scooter, used to drag divers swiftly through the water — something that wouldn’t help in a hunt for small objects on the seafloor, especially as such a device’s propeller lifts debris from the bottom, decreasing visibility.

Authorities were also perplexed as to why the trio would be diving at night, with limited visibility, and in frigid waters near critical energy infrastructure. But with no real reason to hold the men, they were released, and have now disappeared.

Only one of the men had formal identification, and the phone numbers offered by the divers were either incorrect or non-functional. They were rescued not far from the Naftoport facility at the Port of Gdansk, which receives tanker shipments of oil and other and petroleum products. They were also found near an area where there are plans to build a new floating natural gas terminal.

Police and the Polish Internal Security Agency have begun investigating the matter.

This all seems just too much like a plot in a 007 movie.

[source:cbsnews]