Thieves

I hate thieves.  They slink around, usually under the cover of darkness, taking things away from people who have worked hard to acquire them.  I have lost stuff like three outboard motors ripped off my boats inside the Parks storage area, fuel tanks full of gas taken off my pontoon boat, who knows how much shoplifted out of the store, but this weekend takes the cake.

I had spent a couple of days in Midway watching grandson activities so on Sunday morning I went down to check on things.  The first thing I noticed was my fishing boat was not in its slip.  I finally found it tied up in another slip a few rows away.  According to Mike, it was just drifting around on Saturday, ended up near the slip so he tied it up.  I took care of that and  then noticed that a 20'x10' Connect-a-Dock that I had tied up since last fall was missing.  Another search of the Marina turned up nothing.  I talked to Curtis, who is the "eyes" of the docks and he said that he had seen a fishing boat towing something toward shore early in the morning the day before.  He said they took it to shore in Daisy Bay.  Great, I thought, good guys try to get it off the lake where it could be recovered.  I couldn't understand how the dock had come loose however, let alone drift out of the Marina through all the docks, and out the entrance without someone seeing it.  I went back out in the boat with a tow rope to retrieve it.  I found it about where Curtis said he saw it towed but to my astonishment, it was perfectly positioned perpendicular to shore with pipes beaten in all four corners to hold it in place.

That angry feeling that I usually avoid, welled up inside me as I drove back to the Marina to get my truck and tools to free my property.  After partial disassembly and digging to get the pipes out it was free.  Back to the boat I went and towed it back to the Marina.  By the way it was a real effort to get it back trough the docks to its original tie up.  I reported it but I know it would be almost impossible to prove anything.  "We just found it washed up on our beach so we decided to use it" would be the thieves response.  They will be contacted just so they know, I know.  What a way to start the summer season!