Thievery At The Lake

[tie1on]

My son, his wife and 3 sons arrived at the lake last night for a hopefully fun weekend of fishing and boating, only to discover ( this morning ) that the lower unit had been removed from his 225 Merc Optimax. He has reported it to the Stone County Sheriff's office and to the Missouri Water Patrol. Does anyone have any other suggestions on who we might notify? Looks like the high water debris claimed somebody's lower unit and they decided to go "shopping"

Thanks in advance for any info....

"God bless the people of Joplin "

[Phil Lilley]

Wow- that's too bad. Where was the boat when it happened? Did the law enforcement say this was common lately?

I've never heard of that happening.

[Sam]

Retired l.e. supervisor here. In your son's situation (and assuming it hasn't already been done) I'd be SURE to ask those agencies to have an investigator try to lift fingerprints off the motor and the boat near the motor. He might have to insist and even threaten to file a complaint if they refuse. Outboard motors and fiberglass hulls have a smooth shiny finish, and I think it'd be about impossible to remove a lower unit without leaving some prints behind.

Unfortunately, officers taking theft reports are often reluctant to lift prints at the scene. Fingerprints are only useful if you have a suspect to compare them with, and messing with prints takes extra time and impacts the department's budget - they'll avoid it if they can. But fingerprint files are computerized now, and if the people who did this get caught stealing again or if they're arrested for any other crime in this area, those prints might find an easy match, stop some criminals, and get your son's lower unit back.

I'm real sorry to hear this happened.

[johnm]

Thats terrible... If you have to steal things from honest people to better yourself you dont belong on table rock lake...

[vonreed]

Thats terrible... If you have to steal things from honest people to better yourself you dont belong on table rock lake...

Yeah they don't belong on the lake! They belong on the bottom of it.

[tie1on]

The boat was on a lift in a Community dock between Point 11 and 12 on the James River arm. I haven't received any info back from my son since he met with the law enforcement people this afternoon. I haven't heard of any problems in our area though. Sam, I haven't been able to pass on your suggestion yet since I can't rach my son. I have a strong feeling he's out fishin' in my boat....but thanks for the info. I will definitely tell him.

[rangerman]

I agree with Sam, I am also in law enforcement and have solved a couple of Burglaries by pulling prints at the scene. There is NO better evidence than when you go to interview the turd and start interrogating them. They deny completely until you ask, Well, why are your prints at the scene. Then it is usually a confession or, "I need a lawyer." Of course alot of thieves now wear gloves.

[Bill Babler]

Gosh that is terrible. Being a former Water Patrol Officer, on Lake O we saw this all the time. This is a thread that has been opened time and time again on this forum.

Folks, if you don't want or care about your stuff, buy or rent a slip and leave it there, thinking it will be there when you return. Better yet, just drive it down to East St. Louis or the East Bottoms in KC and leave it there for the Winter.

You cannot leave personal property unattended on any of these lakes and think it is safe. Since 1960 it has been proven not to be. This is a Corp lake and views of docks and property from people living nearby is not good. Your property is just there for the taking, and it will be.

Remember a couple of years ago when gas was high. We had this same topic, with not 10's but 100's of boat dock thefts.

I like alot of you and my family have had our dock in the Shell Knob area robbed 3 times in the last 10 years. Enough is enough, we leave nothing at the docks unattended and for goodness sakes never Winter a boat in a dock on Table Rock Lake. Voice of experence.

It is a sad state of affairs, but it is reality.

So Sorry and I hope they catch these crooks.

[tie1on]

Got some info on the theft problem last night after my son had met with authorities. Mr.Lilley responded that he hadn't heard much of this and frankly, neither had I. It seems things are worse than I thought.

The Water Patrol officer said that this is his eighth (8th) report of a lower unit for a 200-225 hp outboard being stolen off the water in the last 12-18 months. Also, this is only for the specific area from Aunt's Creek to Hideaway (just past point 11) which is only about a 5 mile stretch of water by main lake. ( mouth to mouth ) He did not mention if it was happening anywhere else on the lake. He did mention that these reports were ones that only he had taken.

In response to Mr. Babler's thread, I must admit I agree with most all of his points. There are however,different circumstances for different people. These thefts did not all occur during winter storage on the docks. This particular instance occurred within 2 weeks of being on the lift. Some of us live 250-500 miles away and do not always have the opportunity to do what is right, so we take our chances. Also, some of us like to try to fish throughout the winter when the weather will allow, so we leave our boats on the lift.

I, for one am putting the onus on the criminals, not the honest citizen who can't always do what is right. I am proposing infrared cameras to our association ( because infrared gives off no flash ) and if not approved, may put them in myself. We may get a lot of photos of night fishermen, but we may just get the bad guys.....

Keep your eyes open out there and GOOD LUCK...

[techo]

Got some info on the theft problem last night after my son had met with authorities. Mr.Lilley responded that he hadn't heard much of this and frankly, neither had I. It seems things are worse than I thought.

The Water Patrol officer said that this is his eighth (8th) report of a lower unit for a 200-225 hp outboared being stolen off the water in the last 12-18 months. Also, this is only for the specific area from Aunt's Creek to Hideaway (just past point 11) which is only about a 5 mile stretch of water by main lake. ( mouth to mouth ) He did not mention if it was happening anywhere else on the lake. He did mention that these reports were ones that only he had taken.

In response to Mr. Babler's thread, I must admit I agree with most all of his points. There are however,different circumstances for different people. These thefts did not all occur during winter storage on the docks. This particular instance occurred within 2 weeks of being on the lift. Some of us live 250-500 miles away and do not always have the opportunity to do what is right, so we take our chances. Also, some of us like to try to fish throughout the winter when the weather will allow, so we leave our boats on the lift.

I, for one am putting the onus on the criminals, not the honest citizen who can't always do what is right. I am proposing infrared cameras to our association ( because infrared gives off no flash ) and if not approved, may put them in myself. We may get a lot of photos of night fishermen, but we may just get the bad guys.....

Keep your eyes open out there and GOOD LUCK...

tie1on,

You can get an inexpensive game camera. If they don't steal it too, you might get good photos or video of the suspects, but LEO would have to recognize them to match the suspect. The camera idea has been used again and again on anhydrous tanks, meth labs at remotte locations, marijuana grows, store fronts and so on BUT they seldom do much to stop theft or help with solving the crime. If you could get a license plate number or in this case boat number it might help.

Even the kids that break windows and take stuff out of cars (called car hopping) call it a "Stupid Tax." According to the criminals, the owners were stupid to leave it in the car even if it was their own driveway.

The onus is on the crooks not the honest guy, but the honest guy that doesn't learn is going to keep being taxed so to speak.

To throw another idea out there....motion sensor lights have been proven to thwart the criminals a bit as they don't like light.

I don't want to steer this toward political but the looters in Joplin and the stuff that occurred during Katrina were a pretty sad show of how we treat each other in the worst of times. I am not sure if it was true but the Tsunami in Japan didn't seem to have looters. If that is in fact true I wonder why the difference.