A man has been caught in the act of allegedly trying to steal the famed Port Douglas prawn trawler, the would be thief, reportedly running the vessel aground before he was snared and tied to a pole while police were called.

Details of the dramatic Sunday morning arrest of the man, understood to be a tourist, are unclear but the incident shut down the anticipated Sunday prawn sale at the Port Douglas Public Jetty, Santiego Seafoods’s Laurie Moull posting a blunt message to customers to explain.

“Due to a scumbag trying to drive/steal our boat, we won’t be having a sell,’’ the message said.

It is understood it was a member of the public, possibly the fishermen themselves, who caught the alleged thief in the act and he was held, his feet and hands bound around a pole, while police were called.

Neither Port Douglas Police or Santiego Seafoods could be contacted to confirm details at the time of publication.

A sale had taken place on Saturday, but the Santiego team had shut that to save stock for the Sunday sale after coming home from the latest catch trip with the majority of prawns for the end of the year.

“Whatever is left this weekend will be for the Christmas sale,’’ they posted on Friday.

“Next trip, lads are heading down south to hopefully find everyone some bugs for the Chrissie table. If you're wanting to secure your prawns for Christmas, come this weekend. Future prawn supplies are not guaranteed.’’

Customers threw their support behind the team from Santiego Seafoods as the news spread that the laden prawn boat, Diamond Lil, had been stolen and run aground.

Samuel Marano praised the hard working team: “Are you serious, some people. Laurie and the boys work their bums off to supply the people with the products. This is no way to treat a locally owned business’’.

“Glad to see the scumbag was caught. Pity the police in Port are not always on duty ... he may have to wait there a while,’’ added Emily Beutel.

And Tammy Threlfall summed it up well with “They got him! Citizen’s arrest and tied to a pole.’’