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First Thief Experience

12K views 83 replies 28 participants last post by  miatapaul 
#1 Ā·
I'm currently is a slip in Jacksonville, Fl that has locked gates to the docks etc. But that doesn't mean your stuff is safe:

We were awakened at 4am by weird noises and boat movements. Turns out there was someone trying to steal our dinghy right off of our boat's davits. He had managed to untie the davit lines and the dinghy was half down to the water when my wife, who had gotten up to investigate the noise etc. Guy appeared to have come by kayak and he paddled off after my wife went up and discovered him. I lost sight of where he went and by the time I put on some clothes and got a light I couldn't see where he went..

There isn't even really a close place near be to get into a kayak and there aren't any anchored boats etc. around with at least 2 miles. Someone paddling around at 4am in the rain you would think had a plan from the start and he had come targeting our dinghy.
 
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#37 Ā·
Is there such a thing as an alarm system on a boat?

It seems like it would be pretty easy to design a wire that when separated would sound an alarm. It does not have to be too loud to scare the thief and wake you up or the neighboring live aboard if you are not onboard.
 
#38 Ā·
My wife's car was broken into last week in broad daylight and the police were grateful that we immediately reported it and are willing to press charges. Aside from lack of reporting the second issue that hampers the police is people not willing to press charges against thieves. Police were professional and took great care of my wife while forensics came up, took fingerprints, etc and officers were dispatched to stores that reported her credit cards being used there. The neighborhoods assigned officer is making the area where the theft was reported a regular stop for a while where they will park and do their paperwork along with electronically file their reports from the cruiser instead of while in the station. The officers here give it the personal touch and will leave you their card with a direct contact phone number to call/text for non-emergencies when you don't need to call 911. The assigned officer has made visits to homes in the neighborhood where they observed doors left open and other situations that would make you a bigger target to advise you on ways to make yourself less appealing to these thieves.

In this case it is a known foreign Hispanic gang that's come over from the Islands and has been working its way up the coast after spending some time in Miami and plaguing the East coast of Florida so now they are hitting the West coast before making their way back to the country they operate out of.

These guys will even put on wigs and disguises to look more like the photo on your drivers license, if they get a hold of it, in order to get past photo id requirements. Some will be more covert quietly entering to go through your wallet to take only one credit card that's not out in the front of your wallet to increase the chances that you will not notice until they have gotten away with making quite a few substantial purchases and they are neat so they leave no evidence to indicate that they were even there so by the time you figure it out they have gotten far away and may likely already be back in their homeland.

Bad enough having local thieves to deal with but these organized marauding bands of foreign thieves coming through from the islands is a bit much. I suppose it was only a matter of time before it overflowed to the US.
 
#39 Ā·
I must protest sir,

Finally you show your true colors.

This thread is no place to display racist insinuations or accusations or your political opinions thereof of people who are not of your persuasion,

It was not necessary to state a particular nationality in order to get your point across, which you chose to do without ANY proof. In addition making a political statement was also not necessary.

It is blatent prejudice to insinuate what you chose to do.

Please confine your political comments to the appropriate political threads . That way the rest of us who would like to read these forums without your political overtones.

Sorry to hear of the break in and hope the people who did it get caught.
 
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#44 Ā· (Edited)
I had a thief come into my backyard where I had a 4' X 8' Hot water solar panel leaning against my deck. This was originally on the roof. I took them down when new shingles were installed. Panel was not view able from the street. Someone came in removed all the screws holding the glass in place. Removed the glass and just took the copper panel behind it. I can't imagine who might have known the panel was there other than the electric meter reader or the neighbors lawn crew. Unfortunately my security camera covering that area was not working at the time. :(

The number one rule of thieves is that nothing is too small to steal.

-Jimmy Breslin
 
#50 Ā·
How do you tell the difference between the wind and the scum making the bells ring? Plus that's just what I want, more banging stuff on the boat :-(
 
#54 Ā·
So the marina manager called in to report. The Jacksonville sheriff office never called back (they are RIGHT across the street from the marina). Tried to get a hold of the local water cop, no response either.

I bet if I called the local news I could get a story. I've watched the show and know they use anything to fill time.
 
#55 Ā·
Wow. That is unfortunate. :(
Our local county sheriff has a river patrol office and a couple of boats. A sergeant has already been to a monthly meetings this year to chat about problems and concerns and answer questions about enforcement on our waterways.

They like to send someone around every year, always with the caution that the expected deputy might be suddenly called out and have to reschedule. (!)

I hope that you can somehow build better relations with your enforcement guys and gals.
Our guys actively promote having an interested public watch out for indents and help them respond to 'stuff'.
 
#57 Ā·
Calm down. We didn't even get a look at the guys face and you are talking going to court. And you are right, I don't care enough to waste my time reporting something at best leads to NOTHING and just wastes my time filling out reports. If we could have caught the guy as he paddled past docks what do you think the outcome would have been? It would have been nothing as we had no proof of the event other than our saying so.

Shoot a guy for trying to steal our dinghy, that just sounds so stupid! Cruisers scare me more that the thought of thieves and pirates!
 
#58 Ā·
I'm with you Don. I understand what people are saying about unreported mean it didn't happen, but seriously … some things aren't worth bothering with. There are so many more important things in life.

And lets be clear, not all cruisers are the shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later type. In fact, I've never met a single one in real cruising life. They mostly seem to exist on these internets.
 
#59 Ā· (Edited)
I am NOT a proponent of shoot first, I only want to point out that in Florida the consequences of invading someone's home can be serious. If this attempted theft is no big deal to you, and that's your prerogative, then why the thread?
 
#73 Ā·
It's amazing how the suggestion that an option for defending one's home is immediately interpreted as "shoot first." Most reasonable people would not consider attempted theft of a dingy a capital offense.

Also, there are a variety of options available to scale one's response, since home and personal defense should involve a plan.

AmericanSpecialtyAmmo.com

Killing the OP's visitor would be extreme, but tagging him with a 12ga beanbag/dye pack wouldn't be unreasonable, and would be perfectly acceptable under FL Statute 776.031 (previously cited by eherlihy).
 
#74 Ā· (Edited)
Well I found the "raft" the guy was on (my wife ID it as she got the best look). It is tried to a pier next to the marina that a shrimp boat has been tired to for the last week or so. There's no way to get from the pier to shore without crossing the water and the raft wasn't there the other day. So it must be getting used and the guy must be on that shrimp boat!

I called the sheriff and will see if they care enough to come look (sheriff headquarters is RIGHT across the street).
 
#76 Ā· (Edited)
Hey the sheriff's acturally came out and it only took 2 hours.

They gave me this nice little 28 page Victim/Witness Services Guide pamphlet book with things to do and people to call to get over my trauma from the event.

Nothing in it about shooting dinghy thieves though. :-(
 
#81 Ā·
Update to my story:

Turns out the owner of the shrimp boat that I suspected the would be dinghy thief came from has his boat here in the marina. He hadn't heard the story and stopped by yesterday after he heard about the whole thing. He says the only one on the boat was the captain and that he had definitely made the "raft" etc. the guy was on that tried to steal our dinghy. In talking with him there were some other shady things about this captain including a "grounding" that was blamed on the anchor rode breaking, but which looked like it had been cut to cover the "story" (cost the owner $135k).

So the owner said "that's it, I'm going down to meet the boat and fire that captain"
 
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