Thieves commandeered a family boat moored near the Lakeside soccer fields sometime last Friday, crashed it, then sunk it upside down near the transfer station.
“Early Sunday morning my friend Rick Lingard was out fishing and noticed an object floating in the distance,” owner Linda Randall told the Star.
“Upon further inspection he realized it was my boat. He tried to tow it but wasn’t able to. He called the NPD and then me to tell me the good news that it was found and the bad news that it had sunk.”
The Nelson search and rescue team was able to recover the boat and bring it back to the float plane dock. All of the possessions inside, including one of the seats which was found nearby, had been dumped from inside.
“A few things floated out from inside the bow. A jar, a piece of foam from one of the seats, a life jacket. Everything else had been lost to the lake, somewhere at the bottom. All our fishing gear, my beach umbrella, all the equipment for the boat and personal belongings. She was literally empty inside, a mere shell of fiber glass.”
Her propellor was also demolished, and the fin on the bottom of the boat had been snapped off.
“One last insult to injury. Salt in the wound. Now she sits, waiting to see the boat doctor for the prognosis.”
Randall said she’s heard of other boat thefts this summer, including one instance where two men were seen fleeing a stolen craft, but so far nobody has been arrested.