Oakland, CA, Now Plagued by Pirates of the Bay Area

Oakland, CA, Now Plagued by Pirates of the Bay Area

California has recently been the home of many novel crime styles: Smash-and-grab, flash-Mob, and follow-home robberies being an increasingly common problem.

However, a more traditional form of theft is returning to this state. Historically, it is recognized that the era of piracy involving the Unites States’ water ended in the 1830s after the navies of Western Europe and North America began combating Caribbean pirates.

It’s back…this time in the waters of California’s San Francisco Bay Area.

Residents of California’s Bay Area are experiencing a new wave of crime that involves ‘pirates’ sneaking up on dinghies and stealing items from boats in the harbor.

Photos and videos posted online show dinghies speeding through the water at night and the alleged culprits on a watercraft following an apparent theft.

According to posts, as police are inundated with crime, some have been left to fend for themselves when it comes to sea, said Marianne Armand, a local boat owner.

Police have assigned one full-time officer to maritime patrol, and the cop admits that thieves get away because of response times.

‘We have several calls into the police but they can’t do anything unless we catch them,’ Armand wrote in a Facebook post sharing video of the robbers.

It appears the homeless camps are the center of the new piracy craze.

On Monday, Jaime Camacho was salvaging teak wood from some old ship hulls. He said he’s noticed a lot more small boats tied up around the homeless camps at Union Point Park.

“And you wonder, where did they get these boats? Small boats are expensive. So, I wonder where they’re getting them. I don’t know,” said Camacho. “Maybe they’re taking what little money they have to buy them, but it’s, you know, I know a lot of friends who have had their small boats disappear and their outboard motors.”

Damon Taylor, who maintains a sailboat near the Jack London Aquatic Center, said outboard motors seem to be the real prize.

“Yeah, the motors are the thing,” he said. “You’ve got to figure a brand new, small 10-horsepower engine is $10,-15,000. So, even in the black market they can probably get a couple thousand.”

There is now even talk among those impacted by the Bay Area pirates of forming a seaborne militia to protect their property.

Former Oakland Marina harbormaster Brock DeLappe calls it piracy.

“Over the last couple of months it’s become extremely severe, boats are being stolen almost on a nightly basis,” he said. “Residents in marinas are scared, they’re talking about forming groups, they’re arming themselves. Someone’s going to get hurt if this is not taken seriously by authorities.”

Craig Jacobsen, president of Outboard Motor Shop says thieves also targeted his business.

Given where they live, I wish them a ton of good luck with that idea.

A US Navy vessel was one of the boats pilfered, as the patrols on these waters are understaffed and overworked.

Alameda maintains a part-time maritime unit to patrol the waterways, though its officers are assigned to other duties. Oakland has one full-time maritime patrol officer, Kaleo Albino, who said he’s observed thefts spiking in the estuary over the past six weeks and has organized night patrols to help quell it. However, he’s had to contend with limited staffing and the vastness of a bay “where it’s easy to hide” and quickly dismantle a boat engine, he said.

“They’re just taking advantage of our response times,” Albino said, referring to the difficulty of tracking down perpetrators.

Now, the harbors are losing business, with slips left vacant as people become reluctant to store boats at known burglary hot spots. Encampments sprawl along the shoreline, consisting of battered dinghies, inflatable rafts, and even a former U.S. Navy vessel that appeared to house several people before it sank in December.

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