* FOUND * Stolen Boat - from Mercia Marina

[Top cat]

Have you communicated your suspicion to the police, so they can do the forensics? Hopefully before the thieves read this forum and remove evidence.

 

Top Cat

[KJT]

 

Below Hoo Mill Lock, there is a mooring basin on the offside.

 

Crucially there is a dry dock with a roller shutter door and a metal swing bridge carrying the towpath over the entrance. Assuming that the roller shutter can still be operated, a boat could be secreted in there with little fuss late at night, and was probably taken out again on Wednesday evening.

 

 

So, is this where the boat has been?

That would be a very good candidate indeed. But are there not several 'residential' type moorings directly opposite? Wouldn't they have noticed if a boat was secreted in there? And down at Great Heywood services, just a few hundred metres away, there was a poster of the stolen boat.

 

 

With their available accuracy, I suspect that Trackers may become insurance preferred. It would be highly possible to conceal enough bits in wood or plastic housings (wireless transparent) to make a very good tracking system, AND this could both serve to locate a boat in the instance of a crime (theft etc) or in the event that CaRT want evidence of movement -navigation round the system would be proven by a GPS plot.

 

The only difficulty will be finding enough ways to conceal the electronics in ways that look natural. Here is the problem of hiding radios inside a steel tube.

If the tracker incorporated an intruder alarm then even if it was eventually disabled, which it quite probably would be, at least it would give an immediate warning of an intruder which would limit the search area considerably, to minutes rather than days.

 

Ken

[mayalld]

Have you communicated your suspicion to the police, so they can do the forensics? Hopefully before the thieves read this forum and remove evidence.

 

Top Cat

 

I have indeed.

[mayalld]

That would be a very good candidate indeed. But are there not several 'residential' type moorings directly opposite? Wouldn't they have noticed if a boat was secreted in there? And down at Great Heywood services, just a few hundred metres away, there was a poster of the stolen boat.

 

 

Yes there are some residential boats over the other side.

 

However, given the distance from Mercia, we would be looking at the boat arriving here just two days after being stolen, and many days before the posters appeared.

 

I would guess that it is VERY possible that the boat could have been sneaked in at night long before the alarm was raised.

[rodhowe]

 

Yes there are some residential boats over the other side.

 

However, given the distance from Mercia, we would be looking at the boat arriving here just two days after being stolen, and many days before the posters appeared.

 

I would guess that it is VERY possible that the boat could have been sneaked in at night long before the alarm was raised.

are we best not to continue to speculate, on here, and wait til all comes out into the open in the fullness of time

[stripey]

are we best not to continue to speculate, on here, and wait til all comes out into the open in the fullness of time

 

I can see your point, but there is also the consideration that such info as the existence of this little known boat dock could well be helpful to police investigations, and it's good that mayalid has been in touch with them. It also shows other potental thieves that there are lots of pairs of eyes on the cut.

[I Spartacus]

I have been thinking about how they painted the boat, I was thinking that they could have spayed it you could have sprayed it

very quickly spray paint goes off very quickly if you need it to, blue would go well over the boats original colour and then

do the lines the next day.That's why they did not paint the bit at the back is it called the tunnel band, easy access to

all the other areas from the bank but the back would be the problem.

[MtB]

Have you communicated your suspicion to the police, so they can do the forensics? Hopefully before the thieves read this forum and remove evidence.

 

Top Cat

 

 

Unlikely, unless the police have the wrong people in custardy.

 

Accomplices still at large could though, if there are any.

[bizzard]

 

 

Unlikely, unless the police have the wrong people in custardy.

 

Accomplices still at large could though, if there are any.

Its cruel to hold people in custard, they'd turn yellow.

[MtB]

Its cruel to hold people in custard, they'd turn yellow.

 

Would this apply to the large accomplices too?

[Nightwatch]

Birds?

[bizzard]

 

Would this apply to the large accomplices too?

You'd decorate them with a little nutmeg too.

[MtB]

Not a large nutmeg?

[Top cat]

Birds?

Jail birds hopefully

 

On a more serious note we may want to discuss how we should respond to similar events on another dedicated thread.

 

T C

[bizzard]

Not a large nutmeg?

No, a small one would do, you wouldn't want to tart them up too much.

[mayalld]

Jail birds hopefully

 

On a more serious note we may want to discuss how we should respond to similar events on another dedicated thread.

 

T C

 

Very much agreed.

 

This had a good outcome, and several people put in some superb efforts, but I do feel that we could have a bit of a "lessons learned" thread, because there were aspects that could have been done even better.

[Mrs Trackman]

I may have missed this somewhere but I am still puzzled as to why anyone would go to so much trouble to organise a dock and re paint-then steal such an easily identify able boat-that stern is so unusual.

worrying as I reckon most boats would not be so easy to spot once given a decent paint job.

Edited August 8, 2016 by Mrs Trackman

[Flyboy]

 

I've no idea really but the antenna is magnetic so is obviously designed to be attached to something metallic.

GPS signals are incredibly small. They will not penetrate through a steel box & the magnetic mount is for fixing to the outside.

[Nightwatch]

Communication & Co-ordination. Like the thread that was created with just facts or near facts.

 

But just as important, ensure that all info followed up on ASAP and passed to appropriate person.

 

I would like to praise the police. There is a trend that the police appear to be doing nothing and then flash bang wallop, hey presto, it seems to all come together.

 

ie, press conferences, following major crimes, I believe they are there to allow experts to assess suspects under these conditions. Like the couple who murdered children in an alleged accidental fire. Crocodile tears. Too much emotion.

 

Just saying like!

[kbarber]

So pleased this has ended well (to some degree at least... hopefully Chris and Graham don't have too much physical devastation to cope with). Huge credit to the people who put in so much effort.

 

Further speculation on the events..

 

Our American Correspondent commented that this was an extremely sophisticated theft (I think... correct me if I'm wrong). There remains the question of a connection with the 'Chilton' theft. IF there is a connection (big if, I know), it strikes me the sophistication may have extended as far as using that both as a distraction and putting someone else, wrongly, in the frame by way of further distraction. Should Mr Walsh be found, I wonder what the story might be? I shouldn't wonder at all if he had gone to live on a boat, a cheap old 'project boat' in poor condition that he could pick up with the little resources he had available (as an ex-prisoner he won't find the job market easy). Then a chance enounter on the towpath with someone who needs to do something with a boat; perhaps he's going to work in Saudi or somesuch, expresses himself rather pleased he's found someone who can live on his boat for a couple of years while he's away (oh, and a year's rent in advance please... such a pain getting money out to that part of the world).

 

If that kind of scenario has occurred, I suggest we owe Mr Walsh an apology for concluding that he was anything other than yet another innocent party who has lost out as a result of the real villain's activities.

 

As for why he did a runner... again, subject to correction, I think I'm right in saying that a prisoner released on parole is subject to recall until the expiry of their original sentence. If Walsh had been released with several months of his sentence still to run, and came to realise he'd been sold a rather hot pup, he might have felt getting out was better than trying to explain himself to a sceptical policeman and ending up back in one of HM's hotels. (And of course the real villain might have felt there was mileage in finding a 'tenant' who would end up taking the can back wrongly in that way... would take the heat off him completely at the time it most mattered. As indeed, to a degree, it did, while we spent time and (mental) energy trying to see how these thefts were connected.)

 

If we are looking at that level of sophistication, 'lessons learned' might be a little academic in any case, as we're looking at villains who have the ability to worm their way through most kinds/levels of security we can conceive. Not that making it harder for them isn't a good idea, some (at least) might be persuaded to seek easier pickings elsewhere. But we might need to be realistic about what we can achieve in that way. I suspect that, in the end, it is the knowledge that a community such as this will have eyes & ears covering just about the whole waterway network and the will to co-operate and search out any missing boat that is most likely to put off the prospective tea-leaf.

[deckhand]

I may have missed this somewhere but I am still puzzled as to why anyone would go to so much trouble to organise a dock and re paint-then steal such an easily identify able boat-that stern is so unusual.

worrying as I reckon most boats would not be so easily to spot once given a decent paint job.

I agree with this, been wondering the same myself. They could have stolen a boat that could have merged in with the many others out there with few identifiable points. This particular boat had so many stand out things to look for that even a lick of paint would have never let it sail by without question. No doubt will all come out in the wash. I am very pleased that the boat has been recovered and the owners are reunited.

[Señor Chris]

GPS signals are incredibly small. They will not penetrate through a steel box & the magnetic mount is for fixing to the outside.

Well mine will stay inside under the roof where it works perfectly.

[MtB]

I may have missed this somewhere but I am still puzzled as to why anyone would go to so much trouble to organise a dock and re paint-then steal such an easily identify able boat-that stern is so unusual.

worrying as I reckon most boats would not be so easily to spot once given a decent paint job.

 

 

No I don't think you missed anything.

 

This is one of the most perplexing and puzzling aspects of the case. How on earth did they expect to get away with it? Or more particularly, given the care, planning and obvious intelligence behind the stealing, re-painting and signwriting of it, how did they expect not to get caught immediately the boat came out onto the cut two miles from where it was stolen?

 

It would all have made far more sense if it had been found miles away on the Thames say, or on the Cam.

Edited August 8, 2016 by Mike the Boilerman

[boathunter]

 

 

Unlikely, unless the police have the wrong people in custardy.

 

Accomplices still at large could though, if there are any.

Have I missed the bit where it was reported that someone is in custody or are you guessing? Edited August 8, 2016 by boathunter

[mayalld]

I may have missed this somewhere but I am still puzzled as to why anyone would go to so much trouble to organise a dock and re paint-then steal such an easily identify able boat-that stern is so unusual.

worrying as I reckon most boats would not be so easily to spot once given a decent paint job.

 

The trouble with questions like this is that we are approaching it, and thinking about it as a boater, rather than as a boat thief.

 

We see a boat, and we have empathy with the feelings that the owners have for their boat. The thief sees something that he can turn into cash. I think it unlikely that this boat was stolen for the thief's own use.

 

To the thief, stealing a boat, and selling it without being caught is "work". It is what he does to make a living.

 

So, consider the logistics of this project.

 

The thief needs a nice boat that will sell, he needs a boat that won't be missed for some time, and he needs to steal it to coincide with the arrangements that he has made for repainting, whether that is hiring a dry dock, or using the disused dock I mentioned (perhaps he wanted to tie in with there being track work on the adjacent railway line at Hoo Mill, so that the residents wouldn't hear him getting the doors open).

 

He also needs to engineer the information about the boat from those he talks to, and some may not tell enough.

 

Basically, it appears to me that Chris and Graham were unlucky enough to have a nice boat, and to let slip where it was and that it would be unattended and that this matched the thief's logistics. Once the thief has his mark, he isn't going to hang around asking questions of more boaters. To do so increases the risk of detection.

 

Yes, the distinctive shape worked against him, and made eventual detection almost inevitable, but so far as the thief is concerned, detection once the boat was sold would have been a win anyway.