It may have been planned as an act of piracy on the high seas but it ended in nautical disaster.
West Vancouver police say a man may soon be facing charges after an alleged commandeering of a dinghy Saturday night.
Police say the suspect stripped down to his underwear, put his clothes into a bag and jumped into False Creek in Vancouver looking to steal a moored boat.
Unfortunately, the nautical ne’er-do-well lost his bag of clothes en route and was forced to carry on in his skivvies. More calamity met him when he clambered aboard. He couldn’t start the boat’s outboard motor.
“Apparently, as we can tell, he rows all night across shipping lanes, lands at the foot of 18th (Street) wearing only some boxer shorts, wraps himself in a small blanket and tries to go to sleep in the dinghy,” said Const. Jeff Palmer, West Vancouver police spokesman.
A concerned resident spotted the man on shore just before midnight and called 911. He was taken to hospital for treatment of hypothermia and “possible intoxication.”
“He turned out to be OK,” Palmer said.
But by that point, the dinghy had been reported stolen.
The suspect, a 26-year-old man of no fixed addressed, was released on promise to appear in court at a later date. Police will be recommending the Crown lay charges of possession of stolen property.
“As well-planned criminal schemes go, this one doesn’t crack the Top 10,” Palmer said.
The rightful owner came to collect his skiff from the West Vancouver Police Department the next day but, because he is a liveaboard, he had no vehicle to tow it back to the water. Instead, he and a group of friends were forced to hand bomb it four blocks back down to the boat launch.
