Yesterday, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps seized two American boats and ten sailors for “snooping” in Iran waters. In truth, the two boats had become stranded during a routine journey from Kuwait to Bahrain and were awaiting rescue from the nearby USS Harry S. Truman. After keeping the sailors overnight, the Revolutionary Guard returned the American vessels and crew to the U.S. Navy unharmed.

Snatching up another country’s military members is no light offense, yet Iran has a history of kidnapping foreign sailors that step within its territory.

– June 2004. Two U.K. boats were nabbed by the Revolutionary Guard Corps on the grounds that they had crossed Iranian borders. Iran kept the crew for three days and released them after acknowledging there had been a “misunderstanding.” However, Iran kept all the British equipment and displayed one of the captured vessels in a museum.

– March 2007. Two more U.K. boats and 15 Royal Navy sailors were captured and held by Iran for 13 days. Apparently two small Royal Navy boats had entered Iranian waters (sound familiar?), a claim the United Kingdom denied.

– April 2015. A Danish-chartered ship merchant ship and its 24 crew members were detained for a week. Though the ship was in an international shipping lane, Iran swooped in and captured the vessel once it technically entered Iranian waters. It justified its action by citing a legal dispute.

Notice the pattern? Nimble but unarmed foreign boats skirt Iran’s maritime borders, only to be confronted by the Revolutionary Guard and captured before any stronger vessels can intervene. Iran accuses its prisoners of spying or illegally entering its territory and releases them once other countries call foul.

This ritual of catching and releasing sailors is an attempt to demonstrate Iran’s power and the legitimacy of its borders, sort of in the same way a petty neighbor might prune the branches of a tree that crosses from your yard into his.

But also notice the timeline for each of these past incidents. The shortest detainment lasted three days and the longest lasted almost two weeks.

The detainment of American sailors didn’t even last 24 hours before Iran cried uncle.

It looks like Iran’s power play doesn’t work so well against the U.S. military–especially when the nuclear-powered USS Harry S. Truman is lurking nearby.

UPDATE: Iran has released a video of the Revolutionary Corps capturing the sailors, as well as a sound byte of one sailor apologizing for crossing into Iran’s borders. The sailors weren’t harmed, but its uncertain whether the one who apologized was coerced or threatened.

If kidnapping the sailors in the first place was a failed power play, the release of the video is damage control. The video will, unfortunately, figure into Iranian propaganda that Iran is more powerful than the United States. In truth, there’s nothing powerful about ambushing ten sailors stranded at sea and squirreling them away before the big bad aircraft carrier shows up.