July 20, 2011.

Unfortunately, there has been a bit of a crime spree here in Annapolis this year. About a month ago there was a rash of television thefts. Someone was breaking into boats with TVs and ripping them off the walls and escaping. We’ve got no TV so we’re safe but still….

The bizarre thing was that several boat owners were able to pinpoint the thefts as happening during the daytime. One of the marinas that was hardest hit has a security gate that requires you to be buzzed in, so somebody was being pretty brazen. The thefts stopped when a guy was caught in another area marina with a pair of TVs that didn’t belong to him.

A couple of guys were installing TVs in a pair of new boats when they decided to break for lunch. While they were gone the thief climbed onto the boats and ripped the TVs off the bulkhead before they were even wired in. He just waltzed in like he owned the place, snatched the TVs and attempted to drive away with them in one of the marinas golf carts. Fortunately, somebody stopped him and it was “game over”. Until this weekend….

Somebody slimed their way through the marina adjacent to my work place and stole the shore power cords from 14 boats. These things are 50 feet long and they weigh quite a bit. They’re an unwieldy pain in the ass, but somebody dedicated enough time to steal 14 of them.

The sick thing about all of this is that the thieves left all of the adapters and pigtails behind. The cords can cost up to $650 a piece. The adapters are also expensive as hell and even though they are much lighter and easier to handle they were all left behind. That probably means that who ever took the power cords is going to scrap them for the copper within.

What a waste, scraping a $650 power cord for the $40 worth of copper. Hopefully, the thief will use his ill gotten gains, get all drunked up and step in front of a truck….

October can’t come soon enough.