Boating: Are there thieves everywhere?
“I think there’s somebody on ‘Wisconsin Bill’s cousin’s boat,” Boston Bob said to me on the telephone. He’d woken me so I was a little more confused than normal. I looked at the clock and realized it was just a few minutes after three in the morning.
“Why are you calling me, Bob? Just call the Sheriff,” I said. Bob quickly explained that he was getting up to go to work, taking people to the airport, when he saw a small light flash around on the fly bridge. Since I was across the canal, Bob thought I should confirm his suspicion before calling the cops.
As I opened the sliding glass door, the flashlight on the fly bridge went off. I grabbed one of my dive lights and when the light came on, it only lit up the inside of the pool cage. I heard hushed shouts coming from the boat and an outboard motor starting. Something fell or was dropped on the fly bridge followed immediately by a large thud. I could barely make out someone jumping off the fly bridge into the aft cockpit.
I hurried down to my dock. Over the sound of the small outboard, I heard my wife questioning my sanity but I wanted to catch a glimpse of the ‘alleged’ thieves. The dive light illuminated the canal, and I saw two men hunched down in the inflatable as they went away from the scene of the ‘alleged crime.’
‘Wisconsin Bill’s wife ‘Idaho Mary’ came out of their house and shouted to me that she’d called 911 and a Sheriff’s car was on the way. “Call them back and tell ’em they left by boat.”
It was a sleepless night on the canal as boaters and homeowners checked all their property. The alleged thieves knew what they were looking for -new electronic equipment. They partially ripped out several pieces before I interrupted them. The only item missing was a hand-held GPS. The items that were in the middle of being removed were a radar display and a GPS with map plotter. ‘Wisconsin Bill’s cousin’s boat had a lot of expensive stuff.
The big boat even had an alarm system in the main cabin, one under a welcome mat in the cockpit and another one on the platform fish door. Certainly not enough to leave expensive electronics boxed up on the fly bridge with only a flimsy lock to secure them. We gathered at Marti’s restaurant for breakfast and chowed down. It’s a good place to be hungry.
“I’m definitely going to store the gadgets in my house from now on,” said the ‘Reverend’ between bites of a heavenly biscuit. “I almost think those buggers live nearby,” said ‘Rocky River Tom,’ “How else could they know the cousin and Bill were out of town?” “I’m not taking in my electronics after every trip. It’s what we have insurance for,” said “Texas Phil.
It was a sad day. The loss of trust was huge. Our neighborhood was now suspect even though we didn’t believe these thieves, oops, alleged thieves were nearby. We finished breakfast and as we left Marti’s Commodore Jim spoke up, “What is really sad is the fact that our electronics, I mean the electronics we leave on our boats every night, aren’t worth stealing.”
The next day they found the inflatable stuffed up under some mangroves. It was missing a motor, of course. It was stolen from the other end of the island so we were relieved to know our neighbors didn’t prey us upon.
Later, we learned that there have been more and more thefts of newer marine electronics. The alleged thieves have targeted much newer boats than ours, and that is the easy explanation. The investigators explained that pawn shops wouldn’t buy electronics without antennas or cut power cords but theft reports aren’t distributed state-wide.
Another good reason to visit the Dania Marine Flea Market starting March 17 through the 20. I’m not intimating that anyone, buyer or seller, at the flea market participate in fencing stolen goods. But among the thousands of new, overstocked items and of the thousand and thousands used items for sale there, the atmosphere doesn’t lend itself to authentication of ownership.
So the next great road trip for the “Dead End Canal Yacht Club”, after the Miami International Boat show next week, will be the Dania Flea Market. We will be on the lookout for suspicious items?
Boatguy Ed is a retired bottom paint maker and is currently a volunteer extra, grip, lighting setter and coffee go-fer, on his son’s Boater’s Treasures television show, www.boaterstreasures.com. Send comments to boatguiEd@aol.com.