Boat thieves

969 Views 15 Replies 11 Participants Last post by boatmonkey, Jun 25, 2003

PyrateJim

Discussion Starter · Jun 18, 2003

Dont know much details other than was washing the boat at HCN this afternoon when Jerry came walking by and asked if I was missing anything from the boat. He said that a lot of boats had been broken into and items recovered included several hand held radios, phones, binoculars and other small electronic items. A quick inventory showed I was among the lucky ones as I was not missing anything.

Hearing this was a great reminder to take small electronic items home with you and not leaving such things in plain sight when you secure the boat for the night.

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afiremen

· #2 · Jun 18, 2003

3

QUOTE(PyrateJim @ Jun 17 2003, 10:57 PM)Hearing this was a great reminder to take small electronic items home with you and not leaving such things in plain sight when you secure the boat for the night.
Great Ideal!!!

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GaryDebs

· #3 · Jun 18, 2003

WTF

I would hope that it is a bunch of punks not fellow boaters....

A co-worker keeps her boat there ( Some Hawaiian name)...hope hers is OK!

This ticks me off and I don't even own one yet!

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boatnfish

· #4 · Jun 18, 2003

My opinion is let them take the entire thing, boat or truck and do enough damage that it is all written off.

Campari

· #5 · Jun 18, 2003

Geez! Good idea! I always assume my stuff is safe. Even though it's at a private residence, there's no way to tell for sure. I'm gonna start being a little more diligent in taking some itmes off the boat, or at least locking them up onboard.

Too bad about all those other folks though.

Stupid punks!

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PyrateJim

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jun 18, 2003 (Edited by Moderator)

Unfortunately I dont know much more details of this terrible act. It sounded as if there was a recovery of the items, or some of them, but I dont know if it was done by the local Police or if someone at the marina caught whomever in the act. Perhaps Capt Rob may have heard of something?

Anyway, main thing here is that nothing is safe. The best thing to do it remove it from sight, make it difficult to get to and let that be your best deterance. I for one, take the GPS, Radar display unit and stereo face plate off the boat at night and bring it home with me. Everything else is down below, under the locked hatched and hidden well (although there isnt much left)

Remember, even though the parking lot gate is secure, and the security person is there, and you feel safe driving in, entry from the lake/river is still open for anyone who wants to motor on in and take up a vacant well and visit your boat during the night. Now how's that for a scary thought?

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Dookie

· #7 · Jun 18, 2003

This happens all the time, it is sooooo easy just to walk on a boat since the atmosphere is so casual. all ya need is a duffel bag to walk out with the small stuff. Secure everything!

ThreeCrabs

· #8 · Jun 18, 2003

3

They'll take the whole darn boat if you leave the keys in the ignition! Maybe it was the repo-man <_<

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Jason R

· #9 · Jun 18, 2003

You're not safe anywhere. Last summer I got back from a bar or something about 3:00 am and was just sitting on the back of my boat in the dark. A heard someone walking down the dock. A couple of kids showed up. They didn't even see me sitting there as they were leaing over looking into my boat and the boat sitting next to me.
I was waiting for them to get on the boat then I was going to drown them. They spent alittle too long looking so I said "What are you doing?" They about jumped out of their shoes. "Oh, we didn't see you there"
I said, "Yeah, I figured that."
They said they were just looking at the boats and weren't going to break into them.
They left really fast and I have never had a problem.
I guess I should consider myself lucky.

boatmonkey

· #10 · Jun 18, 2003

PyrateJim, can you find out more about this? You say the items were recovered - that leads me to believe the theives were caught. But you don't have any details about who they were or where they came from. I wonder if they were in any way associated with the marina, staff or boaters themselves. Knowing the real facts would make advice more meaningful.

I work with a lot of people who live in a different culture than I do. Their first response to someone who is the victim of robbery is "what did you do to prevent it?"

One fellow asked me if I lock my boat to the seawall - I explained that I didn't, I just tie it there. He said, "well, when it gets stolen it will be your fault!" I'm sorry, I don't accept that proposition. I will never feel it is "my fault" if someone steals something from my boat, or the entire boat - it is the theif's fault, plain and simple.

In this case, it would be interesting to hear how the perps were dealt with - were they prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law or were they shown leniency for some reason. The way to stop thefts is to always prosecute, accepting no excuses, even if it's the teenager on the nextdoor who steals from you.

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Goose

· #11 · Jun 18, 2003

A locked cabinet is always more inviting to a thief - has to be something good in it or it wouldn't be locked - then you end up with a smashed out lock and damage to the area and your stuff ripped off. Best to take it off the boat completely if you can't secure your boat from entry on the outside.

Another trick, most of the thieves are small time looking for a quick grab and go. Leave a fresh bottle of cheap vodka right in plain view (once you are in the boat - not in view from the dock) on a table. Many of these idiot thieves will grab that and go and be happy. A dock neighbor told me this and has had two bottles gone missing while never losing anything of value on his boat.

Tango 7

· #12 · Jun 18, 2003

PyrateJim, Do you know when this happened. I was a few boats down from your most of the day yesterday and was there most of the day on Monday as well. I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Since I am always in different marina’ s I try to keep an eye out of people walking from dock to dock.

Tango 7

· #13 · Jun 18, 2003

QUOTE(Deuce-Five @ Jun 18 2003, 09:11 AM)A locked cabinet is always more inviting to a thief - has to be something good in it or it wouldn't be locked - then you end up with a smashed out lock and damage to the area and your stuff ripped off.
I have never locked my cabin and the only thing i have ever lost is a case of blue i had in the cooler.

PyrateJim

Discussion Starter · #14 · Jun 18, 2003

I lock the cabin more so to keep sleepers out than to stop thiefs as I take everything home with me.

I'll try and get a hold of Penny and see what she can tell me. I'll be at the marina later today and again friday morning. I'll ask around.

PyrateJim

Discussion Starter · #15 · Jun 25, 2003

As it turns out, it was 3 teenagers doing the stealing. They were hiding the stuff in an empty, unlocked dock box. They were caught when they came in to remove everything from the box. Everything they had stolen was recovered. Only damage left was of the canvas' they cut to get in. Such as they boat next to ours (wife's (FullThrottle) bosses).

boatmonkey

· #16 · Jun 25, 2003

Thanks for the update, PyrateJim. Now I wonder if the marina is going to press charges or just let the criminals off the hook because they're teenagers. They won't be doing anyone a favor if they let the theives off easy.

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