Alameda police chief talks about pirates attacking boats in Oakland Harbor
Since July, boats in Oakland and Alameda marinas have been stolen, stripped down and either sunk or left behind.
A "few" maritime burglars suspected of raiding houseboats and yachts in San Francisco Bay were nabbed by the Coast Guard and turned over to Oakland police, a spokesperson for the Coast Guard told Fox News Digital.
At least one suspect was charged with possession of stolen property as investigators look to build a federal case against him, Oakland police spokesperson Paul Chambers said.
Months worth of thefts in the Oakland-Alameda Estuary are believed to be connected, with two individuals committing most of the crimes, Chambers told Fox News Digital in an email.
"There has been an increase in crime on the waterway, and it's likely due to a few new anchor-out persons that have recently acquired a sailboat and anchored in the Oakland Estuary," he wrote.
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A sailing school in Alameda is on the cusp of closing after half their safety boats were stolen by pirates, the owner said. (Dan Hill)
Detectives on the case said they're "actively attempting" to contact victims and local harbor masters to further investigate each incident, and they ask anyone with information to call the Oakland Police Department Marine Unit at 510-777-8670.
It's a major step forward after residents in the 800-foot-wide waterway, which includes multiple marinas with about 3,000 boat slips, endured months of thefts by so-called bay "pirates" who use small boats to board large ships and steal anything of value.
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When they're done, they either sink the ships or dump whatever is left of the boats miles away in the harbor or along its shorelines.
"The Oakland Police Department is aware of an uptick in the theft of boats and in some occasions, the boat motor, which have occurred in recent weeks," police said in an emailed statement on Friday.
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Suspected pirates use a small boat to board large ships and yachts in Oakland Harbor. (Dan Hill)
The Coast Guard spokesperson and the Oakland and Alameda police departments couldn't say how many incidents there have been in total, but all three agencies said they're working together to curtail the issue.
Alameda police Chief Nishant Joshi called it a "regional approach" to protect the waterway.
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"In the waterways, it's very difficult to draw a line," Joshi told Fox News Digital in an interview last week. "There are no roadways or fence lines, so we all have a shared interest, much like crime as a whole, to deal with this as a regional approach."
Joshi's comments were echoed by the Coast Guard spokesperson, who said, "It's a federal and state problem, and we're all working to protect the best interests of everyone in the estuary."
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Here are examples of stolen items from one of the pirate's "hits" on a boat in the Oakland-Alameda Estuary. (Dan Hill)
Oakland police recently received a $166,000 California state grant from the Department of Boating and Waterways and are in the process of creating a 90-day cleanup project plan, Chambers said.
"[We] expect to remove most of the abandoned and nuisance vessels from the Oakland Estuary by December of this year," he said. "I believe this will mitigate most, if not all, of the crime occurring on the waterways of the Oakland Estuary."
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The news comes after months of table-pounding at municipal meetings, letters and calls to officials, residents said.
During a Sept. 25 municipal meeting, several residents shared alleged personal anecdotes of physical confrontations with what many have called "pirates" to show dire the situation is.
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"Multiple vessels have been stolen and ransacked. Victims have had to resort to personally confronting the criminals to recover their property without the benefit of police support. Is this appropriate activity for a 79-year-old senior?" former harbor master Brock de Lappe said.
Another woman said she rescued a man whose sailboat drifted into the bay without a motor or any way to get back to shore after one of the "pirates," which is what the resident called the burglars, cut his boat line during an argument.
