60' Ocean Alexander yacht stolen from Harbortown Marina in Dania Beach, FL

Second Lien Holder did a bit of repossessing on his own

On camera...where do you hide it or yourselves? If the previous owner had anything to do with it, then he's a major fool. He'd have to know they'd come straight to him as their target.

How do you hide 60' boat, which escaped at not much over trawler speed?

You hide it in plain sight and use it like you owned it.

Realistically, who is going to suspect that it is stolen. Unless the thief does something stupid and draws attention to himself or the boat it's not likely they'll get caught soon.

The story states they were onboard 5 hours and "manipulated fuel fittings that were removed to keep it from being stolen" . It took 3 people 5 hours to figure out how to get fuel to 2- diesels? She isn't exactly a speed demon, but perhaps they stole her to smuggle drugs or people....who knows.....or someone else put a lien on the vessel and repossessed it again.

If that were the case, the 3 bandits could've stripped anything they could've possibly wanted off the boat in the 5 hours it took them to get it going at Harbourtowne without ever leaving the dock. LOLOL

3 People, 5 hours, in a facility with "24 hour security" and then they just drive off in the boat. Now, guess they got inside quickly and couldn't be seen. And easy to access the docks there. I wonder if the Lender had it insured. Normally they would in a repossession situation.

I know the shore services are pressed, but a "be on the look out for"? Somebody's gotta be worried if its still floating. My simpleton guess is that it is becoming a reef while the owner waits for the insurance check? Dunno

Bank would be the first lost payee. But it could save his credit.

The ex-owner may have wanted to get his personals off the boat, I don't think they give you the option of emptying the boat prior to grabbing it. Who knows what he may have had on there, guns, cash, crack, 1,000 gallons of fuel, or a 2nd lien holder grabbed it but I would think it would be claimed by said lien holder by now lest the boat be found and a bunch of cops jump on board and start shooting.

This is the part that I noticed: "manipulated fuel fittings that were removed to keep it from being stolen"

Is that common practice? Really, do repo people do this routinely? To me that means that they're concerned that "owners" would try to grab the boat back. Think about it - this is going to take time, might result in fuel being spilled, and certainly would have to be undone before the boat is moved and disposed of. And if someone actually tries to run the engines without fuel...they might actually get away from the dock before the boat dies. And then the diesels have to be bled. This was a calculated decision by the repo team.

Many interesting aspects of this.

-Repossessed in March.
-Owner from whom repossessed shown in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea appears to be from Vernon, BC. In Forest products.
-Seen on camera for 5 hours up until leaving at 1:25 AM. So no security from 8:25 until 1:25. What happened to 24/7?
-Actually stolen on July 12. Story published July 17. Did they not notice until then or what? So perhaps it being slow didn't help at all if not discovered until later.
- Disconnect the fuel lines but no alarms? Perhaps not a lot of incentive for B&T to want to protect it from theft if it was fully insured. Maybe not even the bank that had the fuel disconnected but maybe the owners initially to keep it from being reposessed? Boat certainly not secured.
-So now it's been 10 days. Long out of the country.

I doubt the owner was involved. First, timing. Far more likely someone who became otherwise aware. Perhaps from original repo people, from dock hands?

I agree that it's doubtful the owner is involved and more likely a third party taking advantage.

According to the article it's a foreign flagged vessel. Marsall Islands registry. I believe the USA handles maritime law enforcement for the Marshall Islands so it's not like they would be home free if they got the boat out of the country.

It's a big planet though ...that Garcia Le Trawler never turned up did it?

Not to my knowledge but then sometimes things are kept low key afterwards. But I imagine it was dismantled quickly.

Well, the most obvious places to take the boat are the Bahamas and Caribbean, and perhaps we shouldn't overlook Cuba as a possible refuge getaway now. Something is telling me that this boat was long gone when it was even discovered missing and the only reason they have details is going back and looking at the videos.

I also found it interesting, unless it's been removed, that there is no listing for the boat on Yacht World. Normally the owner and then the bank would have listed.

I know if my boat was at Harbourtowne I'd sure be asking them some hard questions. This was certainly not a quick getaway.

I've repo'd about 20 boats in my career. Almost all of them were voluntary, a few not and that one was no fun. However, we never disconnected fuel lines or anything. We did chain 1 of them to the dock, but the rest no. Under law the repo agent had to give the owners their personal belongings back and inventory all personal belongings and they signed the paper of the statement of belongings. One of them was a couple that had about a dozen sex toys on the boat, that was VERY interesting of them being in his office with them all well in a box and him inventorying each one.

My guess is they took this boat to smuggle something with it. It's a trawler with a long range, albeit slow, but trawlers also sneak under the radar in most places, people never pay any attention to them being anchored for days on end etc. Either Drugs, Money, or People. There would be far better boats to steal in Harbourtowne if someone was going to steal one for parts.

There's a big piece of this story missing and it may never be known. Was it random? I don't think so. Then what made this boat so attractive to the thieves or made them target it?

Maybe they had an order for a 60' OA they needed to fill.

1000 gallons of diesel already on board. Just get out the inlet and turn right.

You might be surprised to find out how small the US sphere of influence really is at this level. In many parts of the world the US is a hated entity so anything seen to have "got one over" the establishment is seen a a bonus point.