NBC News – [youtube=http://youtu.be/4coCBB8Tg4Y]
One California family's Father's Day outing at sea turned into pure chaos when a dolphin swimming next to their boat leaped inside — and broke mom's ankles.
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Dirk and Chrissie Frickman and their two daughters were celebrating the holiday — the first day of summer and the couples 18th wedding anniversary — when a pod of dolphins began swimming by their boat as they were heading back to the Dana Point Harbor in Orange County.
That's when one of the dolphins suddenly leaped into the boat, knocking Chrissie over and hitting one of the Frickman's daughters.
Dirk Frickman called the Orange County Sheriff's Department Harbor Patrol as his wife was screaming in pain while the dolphin flopped on her legs, The Orange County Register reported.
The officer "came zipping out," Dirk Frickman told The Register. "He looked at the boat and said, 'Oh, my God. I've never seen this before.'"
Harbor Patrol was able to remove the dolphin once they reached the dock, but not before it crushed Chrissie Frickman, breaking both of her ankles.
Lt. Jeff Hallock with the Sheriff's Department says the dolphin could have weighed anywhere from 750 to 1000 pounds.
Dolphins in the area are typically "friendly'"but to see one jump in a boat couldn't have been more than a "mistake or miscalculation" on the animal's part, Hallock told NBC News.
"It's one of those things where it's all so beautiful, but you have to remember it's still kind of wild," Dirk Frickman told The Register. "From seven years watching them, dolphins have been so precise in their movements, but you just never know."