Low life thieves... Stolen Dinghy

Zorba

Zorba

Active Member
May 21, 2008
1,324
East Harbor, Lake Erie
Boat Info
2006 340 Sundancer
Engines
Twin 8.1 Mercruiser
Just like every Friday i showed up to the boat to start washing and getting her ready for the weekend before the wife and kids show up. As i'm walking past the boat something feels different but not sure what. I dropped my bags off in the cabin and started to think about which chore to do first when it hits me the god damn dinghy wasn't where i left it. Run up topside and low and behold the thing is gone. I have (HAD) it moored in between my boat and my finger neighbors boat. At first i thought maybe it was taking on water and the marina staff took it out for me. Went up top to ask the guys and they looked at me with a blank stare and that is when i knew it was gone. It wasn't anything special of a dinghy just a ten foot inflatable with a 9.9 but it was my dinghy not some low life scum that just wanted the motor. I'm sure the dinghy is set afloat or slashed and sunk and the motor being painted and prepped to be sold on some cities craigslist.

What really pisses me off about this is the routines my boys and I had are now put on hold. No more early morning dinghy rides in the harbor. Want to go to the beach...not until i can get this replaced. Try explaining to your five year old about the bad in this world when all he wants to do is go out and drop a line off the side of the dinghy.

I do have a tender policy on my insurance so i will replace it but the hassle of it is annoying. And clearly i will have to lock the thing down like Fort Knox, or go through the hassle of pulling the motor every time.

Sorry for hte rant, just pissed.
 
I hear you on this one. It's just to bad you didn't catch them and give them a Fu**ing beating. It seems that violence is the only thing these aholes understand.
 
That sucks.

I don't know about where you live, but here every dinghy must have a registration and numbers displayed. First thing I'd do is file a police report. You are probably correct, but in the event it is spotted police will arrest whoever's in it.
 
That really Sucks. I hate when stuff gets stolen, it usually isn't the item that's taken, but the fact that some piece of sh*t had the audacity to take it that gets me. I live in a very quiet neighborhood, but I have had someone checking my truck almost nightly since I left it unlocked a couple months ago, and someone went in and emptied my ashtray which I keep full of change. Not much money, but the idea.
 
WDCboater said:
That sucks.

I don't know about where you live, but here every dinghy must have a registration and numbers displayed. First thing I'd do is file a police report. You are probably correct, but in the event it is spotted police will arrest whoever's in it.
Click to expand...

Thanks,

Police report filed and all the registration info given. The registration numbers were on boards attached to the side with ties so i'm sure that was the first thing to go overboard.

The problem is it happened during the week when nobody was around. Somebody spotted it, liked what they saw and came back under the cover of darkness on Tuesday or Wednesday and just drove away with it.
 
There was some theft at a marina I was slipped at a couple years ago. They boarded my boat and stole some fishing lures out of the cockpit and had taken a look at the inflatable but passed on that as I had an outboard lock on the motor and a small cable locking it to the dock. That little cable made the inflatable a bit of a task to steal so they went elsewhere. I only locked it to the dock when I was away during the week. Good news is they caught the guy and everyone got all or most of their stuff back. He was marketing the stolen goods on ebay.
 
I really hope there is an especially warm place in hell for thieves that do this crap
Need to figure out a way to rig and hide a dye pack so that if you don't disarm it and drop the dingy into the water it explodes turning you 'high visibility' orange for the next 6 months!
What marina are you in at East Harbor? - What I'm wondering is if you think someone walked in or floated in with an accomplice....
 
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The Keys in FL are having a really tough time with theft at the moment. A friend was in a marina, dinghy tied off to boat, he was on the boat.

During the night someone came in the fairway, cut the line, towed the dinghy off.

Mark
 
northshore said:
I really hope there is an especially warm place in hell for thieves that do this crap
Need to figure out a way to rig and hide a dye pack so that if you don't disarm it and drop the dingy into the water it explodes turning you 'high visibility' orange for the next 6 months!
What marina are you in at East Harbor? - What I'm wondering is if you think someone walked in or floated in with an accomplice....
Click to expand...

I'm at Marina Del Isle. Unfortunately while arguably the nicest facility in East Harbor, we have in essence zero security. Docks are open to any Tom, Dick, or Jane to walk right down. The dinghy was already floating, but secured to the bow of my boat. Easy pickings really but that is besides the point. Im guessing someone walked the docks, saw it, and came back by water to steal.

We have had issues on and off with small things being stolen off boats, (beer, fenders, fishing poles), but never something like this. Maybe this will be a little catalyst for some extra security.
 
We had someone come in by boat last fall and steal a TV out of the cockpit of a boat 2 down from us. I also leave our dinghy (RIB w/ 15 hp) ties between us and our well mate. And have also thought about how easy it is to steal. Now I'm really going to thing about how to protect it better.

Sorry about the loss. Can you swim to the beach? Have the kids swim once there in their lifejackets and use it as a teaching moment on how doing bad things affects others. Good luck in getting it replaced.
 
Unfortunately no cameras.

Yes we can swim to the beach. We would take the dinghy to our local beach as opposed to the big boat as it is only a five minute ride.
 
my wife wonders why i hate most people, its because i can sense a whiff of scumbaggery in a lot of people. come to find out, i'm mostly right. i have had a few of her "old friends" try to sell me stuff off "the back of a truck".

I hope whoever stole your dinghy drowns at night with nobody watching.
 
That sucks big time. Your post though might be a learning moment for others, me included. For example, we all have our registration papers for the dinghy, but how many have the serial number for the motor? How many of us use a cable and padlock to secure the dinghy when we're away. Yeah, I know it's a PITA but it keeps the dinghy secure.

I do that, and when we're trailering the Whaler to distant lakes and we're going to launch it, I secure the trailer with a padlocked chain through the wheels and around the frame member. The trailer would be easy to steal and if it's gone I'm screwed on getting the dinghy back home.
 
Boats and dingy's are easy targets. Buddys out board was stolen last year. No one is around during the week. Marinas have zero incentive for security which really pisses me off. I had my entire dash removed 3 years ago. No cameras no anything. Now my boats like fort Knox. Sad .... When was the last time anyone was boarded on a dink to check reg? I know in all my years I never have. Again sux

Rob
 
UGH! Sorry to hear that! I cant believe anyone would do that! We work hard for the things we have, and only takes a few bad apples to ruin it. I hope they find it.
 
So sorry to hear that it really does suck to have your stuff taken like that. These thieves just make you sick. Hope you manage to get it all sorted out without too much hassle and they rot in hell!


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I had a nice Mercury 9.8 stolen a few years ago - I just hate a thief. Years ago at our families lake house in the NC mountains, someone got into our boathouse and stole a 9.5hp outboard, a 115hp outboard off our new 16ft Glastron and a boatload of my grandfathers tools. When I say boat load I really mean it -- they used the skiff to make 4 or 5 runs across the lake with our stuff, then took the motor off the skiff and left it on the bank in the back of a cove. They also damaged my grandmothers prized Old Town canoe using it to float under the doors into the boathouse. My grandfather was relentless about calling pawn shops etc, and they finally found some of his stuff in a pawn shop and caught one of the thieves. That was in the days when the police would actually try and catch a thief, today they just tell you to call your insurance company and let it go.

Sorry for the rant, just really burns me up -- hope you find it, or at least get a new one soon.
 
So sorry to hear. We installed cameras to the canopy for such a possibility. We bought the dingy a year ago and cameras were installed a month later. Just a suggestion but if the morons see cameras they move along.
 
This thread prompted me to get off my duff and pick up two locks for the trailer. One locks the stinger in the receiver and the second locks the coupler so the trailer can't be removed from the hitch ball.

We're taking the Whaler to Seattle in a few days and I don't want some jackazz to steal the trailer or the Whaler while we're there.
 
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