‘ Lucky Larry’: 17-pound lobster freed from Connecticut restaurant (VIDEO)

Maybe it's not just cats who have nine lives.

Destined for a pot of boiling water, a 17-pound lobster dubbed "Lucky Larry" is busted out of a Connecticut restaurant by a good Samaritan and released back into Long Island Sound.

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Don MacKenzie of Niantic told The Day of New London that the giant crustacean must be at least 80 years old and "deserved to live."

"It takes seven years for him to even become a lobster big enough to keep," he said. "For a lobster to live this long and avoid lobster traps, nets, lobster pots … he doesn't deserve a bib and butter."

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MacKenzie wouldn't say how much he paid for Larry, only joking "let's just say that it's the most expensive lobster I never ate."

He took the lobster back to Long Island Sound on Tuesday, releasing him in a secret location far from fishing nets.

Local children chanted "Let Larry Live!" at the lobster's sendoff, and the Niantic River Bridge operator sounded the lift bridge's siren as the boat carrying Larry headed to sea, according to The Associated Press.