Stolen boat

[metro_fisher]

Hi Everyone,

Yesterday (02/09/2012) my boat was stolen from out front of my house in Bankstown at 7pm after I came back from a fishing trip (I went inside for 5 minutes before I intended to wash it).

It is a 2009 Brooker 4.10 Safari, 40HP Mercury 2 Stroke and a Brooker trailer with skids.

Some unique characterisics of the boat are:

* It has a custom made centre console (see pictures attached) which the 4.10 Safari does not ordarinily have as it is a tiller steer boat;
* It has had the front two seat pole mounts infilled with carpet (see attached) with the back two remaining;
* It has a metal plate at the back of the boat covering a hole where the electronics use to be (see attached);
* It has a number of redundant bolt holes where the engine is mounted to the boat as I had the engine changed from a 30HP to a 40HP (its only a relatively new boat).

The chances of locating the boat are obviously quite low but if you could keep an eye out and contact Police if you happen to see it on the road or the water it would be greatly appreciated.

Some advice I would give to fellow boaties - have the trailer locked to the car at all times when the boat is unattended!!!!

Regards,
Paul

[IcyDuck]

Scumbags, Scumbags, Scumbags .....

That's shocking news Paul.

It sounds like opportunitists to me. The boat was there and they just couldn't resist keeping their sticky fingers off it. Hopefully they have no idea what they are doing, have not really planned or thought about it, make a stupid mistake, and get caught quickly.

Makes me think though, the number of times I have my boat out the front of my house, still attached to the car, while I organise other things before I put it back into the yard. It is a bigger glass boat and would not be as easy to swap vehicle as yours, but would still be doable with a couple determined neanderthals. I might have to rethink that from now on.

Hope your recover it quickly without any major issues.

Regards,
Phil

[nigelr]

Good luck Paul, hope you get it back ASAP.

[metro_fisher]

Thanks for the responses guys.

IcyDuck, I have always had in the back of my mind that someone could steal it. For that reason, I would lock it when I left it out front for an extended period of time. It didnt seem practical to lock it when Im going inside for a very short period of time - Ive learnt this lesson the hard way. I would very much recommend locking it whenever it is unattended.

Hopefully karma plays a role in this some time down the track.

[Zippidy]

Was it insured.

Also, any fish in it in an Esky?

[wayno60]

will keep an eye out for it on the gold coast..

[cormorant]

Was amazed to see the other bloke on here get his boat recovered. Hope you have the same luck and if you get extra lucky and the thieves get caught even better. Talk about opportunists - you can't leave anything alone anymore. Considering a lot of us do the same for very short periods of time to move cars about or let it dry off in the sun and I know I don't bother with the hitch lock when it's only a few minutes.

If your in a area where there is local shops or your neighbours have CCTV security ( walk down the street and check) you might get lucky that they may have some footage.


Oh well just a comment so thread gets a afternoon bump - more people who see the better.

[Axl]

Unfriggin believable I feel for you mate bloody low life scums, I hope it all works out for you.

As cormorant said above I wanted to comment to give this a bump back to the top so as more people can see it.

[Kosta Kondratenko]

Hi Everyone,

Yesterday (02/09/2012) my boat was stolen from out front of my house in Bankstown at 7pm after I came back from a fishing trip (I went inside for 5 minutes before I intended to wash it).

It is a 2009 Brooker 4.10 Safari, 40HP Mercury 2 Stroke and a Brooker trailer with skids.

Some unique characterisics of the boat are:

* It has a custom made centre console (see pictures attached) which the 4.10 Safari does not ordarinily have as it is a tiller steer boat;
* It has had the front two seat pole mounts infilled with carpet (see attached) with the back two remaining;
* It has a metal plate at the back of the boat covering a hole where the electronics use to be (see attached);
* It has a number of redundant bolt holes where the engine is mounted to the boat as I had the engine changed from a 30HP to a 40HP (its only a relatively new boat).

The chances of locating the boat are obviously quite low but if you could keep an eye out and contact Police if you happen to see it on the road or the water it would be greatly appreciated.

Some advice I would give to fellow boaties - have the trailer locked to the car at all times when the boat is unattended!!!!

Regards,
Paul

Hi Paul,

My name is Kosta and I work with Brooker. We'll look out for it, so if anyone gets in contact with us asking to sell a boat and what dealer to go to, I'll keep this in mind.

Let me know if there's any other way I can help by PM.

Kosta @ Brooker

[metro_fisher]

Thanks everyone for your support and bumps - it's people like you that make boating/fishing enjoyable to do.

Zippidy: It was under-insured so I will be out of pocket a decent sum. I did have a fish in the esky (Flathead) - so I miss out on food too.

Cormorant: I have gone to local shops and asked. So far they don't cover onto the street. I will ask a few more.

Kosta: Thanks. It is an absolute shame they took this boat - I have really enjoyed it. Had no issues at all. Handled great for a boat of it's size. If I decide to buy another boat (the loss is still too raw) I would not hesitate to get another Brooker.

[LittleSkipper]

Dirty bunch of MF's! Hope the mungrels lose their fingers if they try to launch it or get attacked by a thousand fleas.

As for boat security I'd put my hand up to paranoid.

I have 5 locks that I use. 3 locks on the trailer when it's not being used & 2 locks when the boat is attached to the car.

We might not be able to completely stop these thieving B@#$%S's but we can certainly slow or deter the dogs altogether.

Hope your Brooker is recovered soon & the dogs who stole it caught?

[gazza2006au]

bugger sounds like they followed u home if thats bankstown in sydney and if thats the port botany ramp go see the security and see if they have any cars on camera following u out of the car park

[metro_fisher]

Yeh I've contacted Sydney Ports to get the ball rolling on CCTV. There are so many possibilities but need to cover them all off regardless.

Thanks again to everyone - the support has been great.

[gazza2006au]

Yeh I've contacted Sydney Ports to get the ball rolling on CCTV. There are so many possibilities but need to cover them all off regardless.

Thanks again to everyone - the support has been great. since it got pinched 5mins after u arrived home i bet ya they followed u they must have been on the prowl because they'd need a tow bar

i use that boat ramp a fair bit and they have cameras everywhere in the car park plus the security guard is on duty someone would have seen them unless they tailed u from half way home

[ozynorts]

Port Botany to Bankstown is a long trip. If they followed you they must have been desperate for your boat. I am wondering if it wasn't someone closer to home that is able to watch you and your routine and took a chance when you went inside. Do you always go inside before washing the boat?
Sucks that this shit happens at all let alone in your front yard.

[gazza2006au]

post this on fish raider and sydney angler both sydney fishing forums

[nathank]

Mate, that's horrendous.. really sorry to hear that its happened mate.. well i hope you get some luck and it gets recovered. My bet though its been sold to the scambags mates and wont get registered again..

[metro_fisher]

Thanks for your replies (and thanks for sharing it with other forums Gazza). I've had a lot of support which has been very positive. I even had Scotty Lyons post it on his Facebook which has had good coverage among fellow fisho's.

It's really hard to know who has done this. It's all speculation. Could have been followed. Could have been someone who lives nearby. Could have been purely opportunistic. The main thing is I am covering off all possibilities that I can. I will get CCTV to see if a car without a trailer was closely behind me - if so I expect the Police to at least start some enquiries so I can cross that off the list.

The nights since I've been driving around surrounding suburbs just in case they slip up. Obviously watching online sales of my equipment. I will frequent various boat ramps. Im also in the process of joining Marine Rescue NSW so i will be on the water frequently. Have a whole bunch of flyers I've made for it. Im annoyed I've lost my boat which i put so much effort into but even more annoyed these pieces of human waste are benefiting in some way from my hard earned property.

[Scott Ashe]

Real sorry to hear of your bad luck mate, hope the police catch whoever is responsible and deal with them.
cheers

[metro_fisher]

Thanks Scott.

I haven't heard much from the police - I think I will need to chase them up on it.

[charleville]

Sorry to read of your misfortune. Will keep an eye out for it in Brisbane. It is a boat to be proud of.


Thanks also for the reminder about keeping a lock on the trailer at all times. Thieves can cut off any lock in 20 seconds with a battery powered angle grinder but at least it would slow down the opportunistic thieves.



.

[MEG-A-BITE]

That sucks,hope you recover the boat.

[metro_fisher]

Thanks for the support.

Yeh hopefully this does raise some awareness of how careful you need to be - I always had it in the back of my mind that this was possible but not this quick.

I had someone from Port Botany check over the CCTV at the ramp, there were no cars following me. That eliminates that possibility. The people I spoke to were great as well, very quick to get back to me about the footage. I'm certainly confident that the ramp itself has a good level of security.

[cormorant]

Any news on the boat -- Bump - bumpty - bump

[MTAQ/BTAQ]

I had my jet ski stolen while I watched from about 50 meters away but we chased and recovered the jet ski (see "Jet ski stolen and recovered in 30 minutes" in the Lost/Stolen menu) - so thieves are very bold but also I have had nil action from police in relation to this which happened 4 months ago.

[TREVELLY]

Thanks also for the reminder about keeping a lock on the trailer at all times. Thieves can cut off any lock in 20 seconds with a battery powered angle grinder but at least it would slow down the opportunistic thieves.
.

Put one of these on and you won't lose it to a twit with a grinder or off the back of the car see post 1:-

http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/showthread.php?176813-Improving-a-Dunbier

Not aiming to be preaching here - just a stopper well worth the money and worth mentioning.

Paul - sorry to hear mate - hope they sink bringing a hungry great white boat side!

[metro_fisher]

Thanks guys.

Unfortunately no news.

I handed out some flyers at the boat ramp on the weekend. I will keep this up for a few more weekends.

Fingers crossed someone spots the thieves!

[live_baiter]

knowing what it is like in bankstown, cctv might get stolen too :)
anyway, hope you get it back as my brother's 5.25m quinie was stolen outside the front of his house and ended up all the way near blue moutains...
he got it back 7months later with attempted change in HIN and VIN etc...

Was amazed to see the other bloke on here get his boat recovered. Hope you have the same luck and if you get extra lucky and the thieves get caught even better. Talk about opportunists - you can't leave anything alone anymore. Considering a lot of us do the same for very short periods of time to move cars about or let it dry off in the sun and I know I don't bother with the hitch lock when it's only a few minutes.

If your in a area where there is local shops or your neighbours have CCTV security ( walk down the street and check) you might get lucky that they may have some footage.


Oh well just a comment so thread gets a afternoon bump - more people who see the better.