Boat thieves strike again in Abaco

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

BOAT thieves have struck again in Abaco, stealing two vessels in one night from boat lifts at a marina and a private home in Marsh Harbour. The culprits had also attempted to steal a third.

According to The Tribune’s sources, both of the stolen boats were later found - one adrift and the other half-sunk with the engines missing.

It appears that the police, with limited resources and manpower, are unable to get a handle on the thefts, leaving boat owners defenceless and at the mercy of the thieves. On Friday, Inspector Terecita Pinder reported that police had not received any boat theft reports in the last two days.

Because the Abaco economy depends heavily on tourism, it is feared that the continuing rash of thefts will hurt the industry, scaring visiting boat owners who go there to vacation or spend time at their second homes.

Linda Knowles, co-owner with husband, Craig, of Lighthouse Marina in Hope Town, said the situation has got “completely out of hand”. “It has escalated and it is an absolute concern with our tourist industry out here,” she told The Tribune on Friday.

Lighthouse Marina is the largest marina in Abaco. Mrs Knowles said the thefts are discouraging and disheartening to everyone, and that it needs more attention from the police and the island’s representatives. “Something has got to be done to get this problem addressed before we start losing tourists,” she warned.

Mrs Knowles believes that a special Police Task Force should be assigned to conduct investigations into the thefts. “We need more police resources down here. The police need to get together with some people, the marinas and the resorts to try and see if we can come up with a strategic plan, without putting anyone in harm’s way. The civilians can’t take this matter into their own hands.”

Resident Colin Albury, chief fire officer for the Royal Bahamas Police Force and EMS director for North Abaco and Treasure Cay, said homeowners are frustrated by the thefts. “We had a lot of boats stolen out of Treasure Cay; our homeowners are at wits’ end. They are fleeing our shores like wildfire. They are so fed up with the situation and afraid for their safety as well,” he said.

Mr Albury said that culprits are not being pursued because there are no patrol boats in place to go after them. “There is nothing in place; when these boats are stolen the police don’t have chase boats to go after them,” he stressed.

Mr Albury said the perpetrators are not even fazed when caught in the act by homeowners. “A good friend of mine heard them cutting the cable on the boat lift and heard the boat dropped in the water and they shone their flashlight on them and that didn’t even deter them, they kept going and stole the boat,” he recalled.

“Something has to be done - there is no question. It is an epidemic and if we don’t do something and get some arrests and change the laws on the books very soon, we are going to have zero tourism here,” he said.

Steven Albury, owner of Abaco Outboard Engines Ltd in Marsh Harbour, estimates that there have been about 16 or 17 boats missing in the last six weeks in Abaco. Although nearly all have been recovered, he said all of the engines were missing.

In order to begin to tackle the problem, he believes that there must be at least five police patrol boats stationed in Abaco to patrol the island and its many cays. “The police lack resources,” he said. According to Mr Albury, many of the thefts occur during March to the second week in August when boaters come to the island. The boating season slows down during the third week in August through November, he said.

“The police have one boat, and most of the time it is not in the water. And if it is, they are patrolling in the day. Well, the thefts do not happen in the day.” He also noted that there is only one way in and out of Marsh Harbour and Hope Town. Mr Albury encouraged people to be proactive and reported that Scotland Cay has not had any thefts in a long time since installing night laser beams.

Tourism “our life blood”

The Abaco businessman said he has seen comments posted on social media by people saying they do not want to come to Abaco any more. He also noted that Abaco has been blacklisted by insurance companies.

“We are on the blacklist of insurance companies and when boaters leave the US, unless they are very wealthy, the insurance is cancelled once they pass Bimini, and it has caused a lot of people from coming,” he said. “Abaco relies on foreign tourism - that’s all it has; tourism and foreign homeowners are our life blood. If we don’t have that, we are nothing. Everyone is so concerned over the high prevalence of thefts,” he said.

Mr Albury claims that nothing is being done about the incidents in terms of police investigations. And, even if the culprits are caught, he said, they are let out on bail and continue stealing boats.

“The guys doing the thefts have been seen time again on video and they do nothing to them because the penalty is $300 or $600 fine. There is no stiff penalty and the legislation in place does not address the problem,” he said.

Comments

Well_mudda_take_sic says...

Some Abaconians now believe there is only one way to fix this problem. Rumours are circulating that a couple of Abaconian marksman (with night scopes and silencers) might be willing to lie hidden in wait with suitable long range hardware to focus on the thieves when they next come for more candy that they seem unable to resist. Sadly, whenever and wherever law enforcement consistently fails, the aggrieved do tend to take things into they own hands. It's only a matter of time!

Posted 8 August 2016, 1:40 p.m. Suggest removal

OMG says...

As usual no response from the government on supplying boats and extra police but I bet funds for any of Freds overseas trips are sanctioned without delay. Third world governance.

Posted 9 August 2016, 4:14 a.m. Suggest removal

BMW says...

Remove them from society.

Posted 9 August 2016, 6:25 a.m. Suggest removal

crimestopper says...

vigilante justice time

Posted 9 August 2016, 8:12 a.m. Suggest removal

dakota36b says...

July 30 2016 – STOLEN BOAT RECOVERED – TAKEN FROM BIMINI BAHAMAS – 4 am RECOVERED 6:40 am FREEPORT

A Seatrax GPS customer was woken by 2 text messages sent from his boat was moving and immediately went down to the marina in Bimini at 4:30 am to see his boat was gone. When the owner went to the marina and saw his boat was gone, he went to the Bimini Police office. He called Carolyn Stash at Atlastrax USA about 5:15 am. With continued dialog during the tracking and recovery and with the help of our customer and live tracking information from Atlastrax USA, the boat was tracked 75 miles, with speeds up to 52 MPH and was spotted by Freeport Harbor Patrol at 6:40 am as it arrived into a remote canal as the boat moving between islands.
He stayed at the Bimini Police Station until the boat was recovered and was self-forwarding each new text message from the boat to Freeport Law enforcement. Carolyn was watching from the Atlastrax Message Handling System and our system was plotting the actually path of the boat with speeds and headings (Actual theft recovery maps seen below)

The thieves had no idea they were being tracked by Atlastrax and our Seatraxtm GPS tracker was on board. What happened after the police intercepted the boat in Freeport is still not yet 100% clear but it is reported that when the 3 thieves saw the police, they came up parallel on a sea wall, jumped off and ran away, but they throttled up the boat as they jumped off. The boat continued running into the seawall sustaining damage, was processed for the investigation, and returned to the owner. As of August 5 the thieves were not caught.

For information and for your Seatrax, call Carolyn at Atlastrax USA 954-465-3743.
www.atlastrax.com

http://tribune242.com/users/photos/2016…

Posted 9 August 2016, 10:39 a.m. Suggest removal

karrie says...

How is this even possible? The boats should be safe in the harbor, there are authorities responsible of that, people pay taxes to have their boats guarded. The thieve don't just steal boat parts so you can replace them with <a href="http://www.mmimarine.com/mmi/index.php?…">discount boat parts</a>, they steal entire boats and sometimes they even damage them just to avoid getting caught. Let's hope this will end soon.

Posted 10 August 2016, 2:45 p.m. Suggest removal

Joe557 says...

What a joke. Heard about this on all the boating forums. Steering clear of a place that would let this happen. To bad for the good people that need tourism income cause this place is doomed.

Posted 6 January 2017, 11:59 a.m. Suggest removal

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