The watch officer of the cargo ship, the NCL Salten, was reportedly asleep while on duty when the ship veered off course and ran aground in Byneset, Norway. The incident occurred early Thursday morning and, fortunately, no injuries were reported. The officer, a Ukrainian in his thirties, admitted to police that he fell asleep while alone on watch, prompting an investigation into possible violations of maritime work regulations.

Capturing the sheer disbelief of the event, local resident Johan Helberg recounted the surreal moment he discovered the vessel lodged in his front garden. "I had to bend my neck to see the top of it. It was so unreal," he told the Guardian. A neighbor alerted him after hearing the ship approaching, narrowly missing Helberg's home by just five meters.

The NCL Salten, a Cypriot-flagged vessel with a crew of 16, was traveling south-west through the Trondheim Fjord when it ran aground. Efforts to refloat the ship have yet to succeed. The ship had experienced a similar grounding earlier in the year, but the crew managed to free it at that time from the shallows through their own means.

As investigators continue to delve into the circumstances behind this marine mishap, the local community remains shaken by the spectacle of a massive ship toying with their neighborhood.