They found the boat.. It's a very odd story.
So I got a call from the police last night. They said they needed me to come to a house and make an id on my boat that was stolen.
I grab the camera and head down the road. It was at a house in a nice neighborhood. Only about 5 miles from me and about 5 miles from where it had been stolen from. There it was in this driveway. Cop comes out and says that the owner of the house it was at bought it from some guy for 3500 dollars but had only paid 500 dollars cash to keep the boat.
Guy who bought the boat who is my age told me he owns a bar. He was behind the bar when this guy starts talking to him about a week ago about how he is in some financial trouble and needs to sell his boat. Offers the boat to him. Guy says he wants to see it and the next day this guy shows up with my boat. Bar owner gives him 500 cash, gives him a bill of sale, and states he will need to get a lien off the boat title before he can get it to him. At this time he leaves the boat with the bar owner. Bar owner keeps the boat behind his bar for a week before he brings it over to his house. He then decides to call the guy to try to see where he was on the title. Phone # on the bill of sale was not correct or bogus. Guy thinks he was ripped off and calls the police to see if the boat was stolen. Which it was. Cops call me.
Now the fishy part of the story is when I asked the guy where the bill of sale was. He stated he may or may not have it back at his bar. ?????? That threw up the first red flag. Second part was when I went to look in the boat and see what was left I asked him if anything was still in the compartments. He tells me he didn't know as he had not looked in them. ?????? You buy a boat. You have it for a week behind your bar and don't look in it?????? So I get in it and start looking. Minus the graph and the two radios everything else is in there. I mean everything. Anyone who was anyone would have looked in the center console and seen all my tools and all my papers in it. I mean I had old fishing licenses, shrimp bait permits and other crap with my name and my ADDRESS on it. All in clear view of opening the door. WTF????? Guy then states that he saw that the License numbers on the hull looked like they had been swapped. Which they had. Which they had. But why would anyone who is going to steal this boat swap the letters to pawn it off on someone else. We all know the License number is not the number the police or DNR look at. It's the Vin number on the boat hull and the motor serial #. All of which were intact.
The condition of the boat was poor. It's pretty obvious it was taken sometime last year. The new cover that was originally on it was gone. It was covered in pine sap, mold and dirt. Everything I had taken great care in not letting fade was faded. Also it was obvious when I put up the boat last time it was washed. Now it shows a good waterline all the way around it. So it has been in the water at some point. No telling what the condition of the motor is.
So the tow truck came and towed it away to the impound yard. He told me it would be the last time I ever saw it again because while the insurance company told me they would offer it back to me that wouldn't be the case and it would be shipped off to auction and sold within days. My phone call to the insurance company was to show he had no clue what he was talking about. They are going to offer it to me for the salvage cost. Now I'm on my way over to the impound yard to get all the contents out of it as per instructions from the insurance company.
She is in s***ty shape.
And the story will continue.
