This week on Weird and Wacky Wednesdays: Boat Crimes and Bizarre Buoyancy
It’s boating season. This week on Weird and Wacky Wednesdays, we cast off from the usual shore and sail with stories of maritime mischief. From yacht thefts to inflatable drug runs, it turns out the world of boats is full of strange and illegal adventures.
Set sail, and then hide in the mangroves
First up is the kind of Florida story that could float a Netflix series. In May, a 29-year-old Russian man stole not one but two boats in Martin County, Florida. He started the day by taking a towboat, but that was just a warm-up. He then set his sights on a $2.5 million, 68-foot luxury yacht. Once aboard, he led authorities on a high-speed chase down the Intracoastal Waterway. The pursuit ended only after the yacht rammed into bridge pilings. The suspect tried to hide in the mangroves, but law enforcement officers tear-gassed the vessel and arrested him. The yacht, meanwhile, is probably getting more repairs than sea time.
And your parents don’t want you to marry a DJ, why?
Next, we head to Scotland, where a DJ decided to try his hand at grand theft boat. Martin Dickson, a local disc jockey, broke into a yacht club in Fife and stole a Montauk Boston Whaler worth £22,000. He stripped the £6,000 engine and abandoned the boat. The story might have ended there, but Dickson took things further. He went online and launched a fundraiser asking for £10,000 to help him avoid jail time. Unfortunately for him, only 13 people contributed, and he managed to raise just £333. He told supporters he had “nothing left to sell” and asked them to dig deep. The public decided not to.
Abandon ship
Finally, in a story that sounds more like a scene from an action movie, the UK Border Force intercepted a rigid inflatable boat carrying 350 kilograms of cocaine. That amount of cocaine has an estimated street value of £37 million. The officers pursued the smugglers in a high-speed chase across open water. As the law closed in, the suspects jumped into the sea in a desperate attempt to flee. Their inflatable vessel floated on without them. Authorities eventually recovered both the drugs and the suspects. No word yet on whether the boat is back in action, but it is unlikely to appear in any boating safety ads.
These maritime adventurers apparently missed the part about boating being peaceful.
