1968 Grand Banks 36' stolen running gear

[sdowney717]

A guy at the Marina Cove Boat Basin had both shafts, both props, both struts and both rudders stolen. Somehow someone noticed this and called the police. But by the time they got to the thief, he claimed he had already sold the metal to a scrap yard and gotten $300. So then the boat owner finds out the scrap yard claims his stolen property is already outbound on a ship headed for China.
So the guy who had the stuff stolen told me he priced out the parts and it came to $12000 !!

Anyway, he and a police detective are going to the scrap yard to ask what happened. But he thinks the scrap yard is lying and hiding it.
If he cant recover this, does anyone have a source for used parts for the boat? I told him I would post it on the forum in case someone knows.
Thanks

[Domesticated_Mr. Know It All]

I'm sure there's someone closer but in my neck of the woods I'd call these guys. Family business, wooden boat owners, best around here anyway.
[img]smile.gif[/img] parts
http://www.lakelandautomarine.com/
labor
http://www.brandsmarina.com/

and.....
used and salvage parts (Florida)
http://www.salvagemarine.com/

[ 02-04-2006, 06:48 PM: Message edited by: Mr. Know It All ]

[CJ]

How about China ?

Sorry - seriously, having been a victim of theft myself (my first boat's 35 hp Johnson taken right off the boat on its mooring when I was 13) I can sympathize. Can't the boat owner hold the thief and or scrap yard financially responsible? Isn't that considered grand theft?

[L.W. Baxter]

Theft of metal for scrap is an epidemic here in Portland, A.K.A. the crystal-meth capital of the world. The thieves get pretty inventive and ambitious, but the running gear of a boat is one I hadn't heard of yet.

The police are cracking down on the local scrap yards, but not having much success.

[Mike Vogdes]

This sounds mighty suspicious to me, thieves usually steel easy stuff, taking the rudders and running gear, shafts and struts, is a pretty big job. Are you sure it went to scrap? maybe somebody hired the thief to steal these specific parts. A propper junkie would use a chainsaw to steal this stuff.

[carioca1232001]

L.W. Baxter wrote:

......The police are cracking down on the local scrap yards, but not having much success.

joejapan wrote:

......During the investigation a detective ran into a "Midnight Auto Supply" operation for boaters. ....it was operated on "custom order" ..... The stuff was never recovered but they did find the operation tied in with others in several Gulf Coast states ......

I thought stuff like that happened only here in Brazil.

[George Jung]

Perhaps that's where the parts are headed...

(Just kidding!)

[L.W. Baxter]

This sounds mighty suspicious to me, thieves usually steel easy stuff, taking the rudders and running gear, shafts and struts, is a pretty big job. Are you sure it went to scrap? maybe somebody hired the thief to steal these specific parts. A propper junkie would use a chainsaw to steal this stuff.

Mike Vodges, you have to realize that meth addicts are not "proper junkies". Crystal meth makes people surprisingly industrious and ambitious. The latest thing here in Portland was the theft of some bronze water meters, which required some planning and real work, as you can imagine. Worth a couple hundred apiece as scrap, a couple thousand to replace, of course.

In this area, at least, the police say that the scrap metal thieves are meth addicts, almost 100%.

You might wonder why they don't just get jobs, given their willingness to work for their money. But they don't make very good employees, I know from experience.

[sdowney717]

A lapse of judgement on his part perhaps.
He had these items off the boat, laying next to it.
He had cleaned and polished them up, so maybe they shined like a beacon. Still his boat was in the back of the yard and only access is thru the front drive.

nd he is surrounded by other boats too.

So many crimes are those of opportunity and easier targets are easy money to thieves.

When I removed parts like this on my own boat, I took them home.

[WoodenBNut]

They ain't gonna steal anything off of my boat!

Well, I am fortunate and I've got an answer to people stealing stuff off of boats "in the yard"/"storage". In the yard that I am in we have a gentleman that lives aboad his boat(on the hard) and has a 12 guage shotgun for people who come sneak'in 'round. I know, I gotta make sure that I check in with him when I go down to work on the boat. ..... So you just gotta talk someone in the yard to live aboard and carry an "equalizer"

[Ken Hutchins]

Love the sound of that equalizer.

[wyndham]

With all due respect anyone who leaves 12k worth of polished bronze running gear laying around the yard is pretty much getting what he deserves.
Even in the best of yards things go missing if they are left unattended. I would no sooner leave my rpop and shaft where anyone could get their hands on it than I would leave my boat open and unlocked on the mooring.
I don't wish anyone ill but a little common sense goes a long way.

[WWheeler]

I read recently that a Henry Moore bronze sculpture was stolen in the UK. Far from being Thomas Crown-type art thieves, they simply sold it for scrap, and got about $2000 for it.

BBC News

[ 02-08-2006, 04:16 PM: Message edited by: WWheeler ]