Thieves targeting Pinellas County boats

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

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This is a picture of one of the stolen boats. Watch the story Watch Video

PINELLAS COUNTY (Bay News 9) -- Boat owners have the option of using high-tech tools to fight back against thieves targeting boats in Pinellas County.

Sgt. Dwayne Somers from the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office Marine Unit has some advice for boat owners.

"Make sure you turn off switches that lower your lifts," he said. "Whether it's through the breaker box and if the box is inside have the breaker shut off."

Investigators think thieves are taking the boats to smuggle drugs or people from other countries.

"The criteria of the vessel is a go-fast boat with a double or triple motors that will handle rough sea conditions," Somers said.

Besides doing things like removing keys and turning off boat lifts, boat owners are also turning to technology.

Kevin Sherburne from HWH Electronics is offering customers a GPS tracking system to recover boats before they get to far.

"We need systems that track internationally -- not just locally, so we have gone to GPS and satellite technology," Sherburne said.

Once the boat is moved 500 feet, the GPS will send a text message giving the boat owner the latitude, longitude, speed and even what direction the boat is headed in.

The levels of technology vary, but there are even systems with cameras and ones that will cut off the boats engines. The GPS tracking system can also be hidden from thieves and be hooked up to its own power source.

"Back up power supplies are independently fused and supplied so the thief can disconnect normal batteries on the boat and this would still have a chance to report the theft," Sherbourne said.

The GPS equipment starts at about $1,300.

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