The children in one Cayuga Heights family can no longer spend their days stealing chests of gold or shooting cannonballs into British ships, now that a large wooden pirate ship was stolen from their backyard. Police are on the lookout for the swashbuckling outlaws who stole it, in what the homeowner says must have been a carefully planned operation.

The pirate ship, which was a four-foot-wide, 12-foot-long and eight-foot-tall wooden play structure, was reported stolen on Mar. 11, according to Paul Anderson, who — along with his father — built the structure for his children. Anderson estimated that the structure weighs between three hundred and four hundred pounds.Ahoy! Thar she blows: Paul Anderson and his family pose on the wooden pirate ship that was reported stolen on Mar. 11. Anderson built the structure with his father. Courtesy of Paul Anderson - By:

“Clearly, whoever took it planned the operation carefully,” he stated in an e-mail.

Cayuga Heights Police found tracks on Anderson’s lawn and in the snow. The tracks indicated that the pirate ship “had been dragged or lifted … to Upland Road and onto a trailer,” Anderson said.

Anderson said he thinks three or four people would have been required to move the structure.

“I cannot think of a plausible motive [for the theft] other than a prank,” he said. “It can’t be easy to hide either, so I expect someone has seen it.”

The Cayuga Heights Police Department was not available to comment on the investigation Thursday night.

“I’m annoyed that someone had the gall to steal this item that had great sentimental value to us,” Anderson told The Ithaca Journal. “It wasn’t worth much, except to us.”

The wood used to build the structure cost about $300, but its value was mostly sentimental, The Journal reported.

Anderson said he hopes an honest citizen will see the pirate ship and report its whereabouts. The ship is not actually sea-worthy, so it still resides somewhere on land. Until it is found, the buried treasure and high seas of his backyard will likely remained unexplored.