Report: Cruiser steals painting from ship

An American who sailed to Bermuda last week on a Norwegian Cruise Line ship has admitted to stealing a copy of a Rembrandt painting from the vessel, Bermuda's Royal Gazette is reporting.

The Royal Gazette says Kevin Hudgeons, 43, of Kentucky, on Monday was fined $500 for the theft by a Bermuda judge. The news outlet says he had been caught on Friday trying to leave the 2,348-passenger Norwegian Star with the large painting, which is the size of a door and worth more than $13,000. Security camera video reportedly shows him removing it from a wall and carrying it to his cabin.

When confronted by security guards, Hudgeons said he was "going to mail it home," the Royal Gazette quotes a prosecutor as saying.

A defense lawyer for Hudgeons told the court he was on medication to treat opiate withdrawal and had been reported to be acting oddly by his wife, the news outlet says. She argued that he thought he had won the painting in a raffle.

The incident comes less than a month after a passenger on a Royal Caribbean ship visiting Bermuda admitted to stealing more than $3,000 worth of items from the vessel's spa.