Yesterday some thieves tried to steal a 53’ HCB center console here in Coconut grove, just a few slips from me. Not too unusual as CC as a favorite target ... what is usual is that it happened at 10am, in broad daylight and that the thieves stole a SeaTow boat down the pier to tow the HCB! apparently they weren’t up to the job and cut the center console loose outside the marina and fled with the tow boat... people in the mooring field noticed the drifting boat and secured it so far the Seatow vessel is still missing. I got a partial cam shot at 10:11...
Geeze, that is pretty darn bold. I wonder why they cut it loose? If they were already outside of the marina with it, they had it...….perhaps they got spooked by something.
That is remindful of one in the FLL area a couple of years ago. In that case it was a fairly easy theft of the boat until the thieves ran across a small problem. They had gotten away from the dock but didn't know how to operate the boat. There was a similar situation on Lake Washington. Acting like you belong doing what you're doing goes a long way. It's like the thieves who show up with moving vans and clean out houses and no one even suspects anything going on as they're in the open and make no effort to conceal their presence.
I recently spoke with a couple vessel monitoring and security companies and learned that insurance companies are now mandating vessel tracking systems specifically for center consoles due to the high theft rate.
Many, many years ago while setting up the Amsterdam car show bunch of dudes showed up in, IIRC, Mercedes uniforms and informed the sales people they were swapping out the new models with other ones, orders from the factory. The cars were never seen again.
"if you act like you know what you are doing, no one will ever ask" That was quoted to me by a college classmate when I asked what he was doing walking out of the chem. building with a coat rack. He said he needed one. Criminal minds.
Geez! Am I right in remembering that the Coconut Grove marina is right in front of the City Hall? Must have been some politician. That would explain why he/she was unable to operate the boat and eventually cut it loose...
None of this makes any sense. They take a 53' dump it outside the marina, then run the stolen seatow boat hours and hours away.
They were seen leaving the bay by key Biscayne and the tracker on the boat showed they ran 6 miles off shore. https://www.instagram.com/p/B8L-RynH3nb/?igshid=1d9q4ltclcd3k