A strangeness at Doug's

[cgoudie1]

I've been debating whether to post this for more than a week. About a week ago at Doug's, the Rats and I had finished off a pretty good 4.2 sesh
late in the day, and had derigged, but left some gear down on the beach.
There were still 5 (windsurfer) cars in the parking lot. The last piece of
gear on the beach was my friends custom Cascade. We finished some
beers in the parking lot and went down to retrieve his board and found
a couple (a man about 6'4" and 260 lbs, and a woman about 5'5") just
past the stalls carrying my friends board away! We stopped them and told
them that that was our board, but they were reluctant to give it up and the
guy (who was pretty big and pretty drunk) looked like he might try and
keep the it. We stood firm (I'm a sweet guy but people tell me I look mean),
but I was glad both of us were there. After a few minutes he
gave up the board without physical altercation. Never had a problem
like this before anywhere in the Gorge, maybe it was an isolated incident.
They had that long time Lyleite look about them (my apologies to all my
many friends who live in Lyle, I'm not intending to cast aspersions on your town).

Just keep a weather eye out.

-Craig

[Carl2]

This would be much more helpful if you would have taken there license plate #.

[cgoudie1]

I know it, and I fell pretty stupid for not writing it down, but I was kinda
shocked, and when I finally did think about it, they were headed
West in a small tan 2 door 80s car with a bad muffler. Again not very helpful.

The guy is big though, kinda pudgy and fat, but with an overall huge frame, so he carries the weight well. Long black hair, maybe mid 40s.

They actually gave us a story about thinking the board was abandoned,
but with cars in the parking lot, you should know better.

-Craig

[isobars]

May we presume you gave the cops a detailed description of the perps, their car, and their license plate number? If you did so and sign a complaint with witnesses, the cops can prosecute. If you refuse to sign a complaint, the cops will at least know where to look when their next theft proceeds all the way. This action was First Degree Theft, just as legally as it would be if they had stashed the board in their car or garage. It's a Class B felony under RCW 9a.56.030 in WA state [A person is guilty of theft in the first degree if he or she commits theft of (b) Property of any value, other than a firearm as defined in RCW 9.41.010 or a motor vehicle, taken from the person of another]. That alone is good for up to 16-43 months in prison plus $10k-$20k in fines, depending on the value of the board.

If either of them even implied physical resistance to returning your property, that adds assault to the charge. Touch you and it's also battery. Now we're talking some serious prison time and fines, not just a couple of years + $10-20k. Public intoxication exacerbates, rather than mitigates, their crimes.

According to the letter of the law, you could have put these goons away for many years with a stroke of a pen plus subsequent testimony, probably preventing many other crimes. Even in reality you could have given them enough police and court attention, fines, and jail time to teach them not to mess with WSers or WSing gear. But if it took you a week to warn us of this threat, I'm guessing he walked away Scott free.

Our state, county, and city cops go overboard to invite public involvement in incidents even far less threatening than this. They strongly encourage us to report suspicious vehicle or pedestrian activity in a neighborhood, for example, or hang-up phone calls which may indicate a burglar checking whether we're home. I called them about a very slow-moving decrepit car whose driver was looking too long and too hard at homes and yards in an average neighborhood; they promised to send extra patrols through there for a few days. Reports like this make their job -- protecting and serving the public -- much easier. Report a bad driver by cellphone from anywhere in the state and you're likely to see an appropriate cruiser on his ass quickly in direct response to the call. (The downside is that many WA drivers consider passing another vehicle on a two-way highway in full accordance with the law to be dangerous, and phone it in as reckless driving, and here comes the law, ready to rumble.)

You really couldda nailed this board thief. Thanks for at least alerting us whom to look out for. Maybe the next guy will send those two up the river, and I don't mean the Columbia.

PS: I've now seen your second post, and feel sure the cops would still appreciate the information. This couple sound pretty easy to spot in a small community.

Mike \m/

[jesusjones]

thats what meth does to people? I have a similar story except my stuff dissapeared.

[cgoudie1]

Mike, with me you can't really presume anything ;*)

I can tell how you would have handled it 8v0, but consider, there was
no theft (maybe attempted theft, tough to prove). They gave it up,
they didn't throw punches, they said they thought it was abandoned,
(it clearly wasn't, but how do you prove intent to steal) and it wasn't
my board though I always stand with my tribe.

My intention was, (and I'm still not sure posting about this publicly is a
good idea),

Watch your gear, and if ya see a really big guy (and kinda haggy
smaller women) that doesn't look like a windsurfer hovering around it,
then stow your gear, or at least keep an eye on it.

If the owner of the board wanted to go to the police, he could have done
so. He considered it, and decided not to.

-Craig

[einhorn]

I would suggest not accepting legal analysis from windsurfing websites or Judge Judy. That said:

1) Taking property is theft. Misdemeanor to felony level depending on value of property.
2) An attempted theft lowers the seriousness by one notch.
3) Using or threatening force to take property equals robbery, a more serious offense.
4) Assault requires actual contact, and can range from misdemeanor to felony.
If there was a cop on the scene at the time of the offense, he/she might have considered charging a lowlife with a crime, but probably would have just told the person to move along.
Even if you had a license, I doubt you would get a cop to stop a car after they had left the scene for something like this, unless the cop wanted a justification to stop and search, if they thought there was a likelihood they would have found drugs.

Realistically, even if caught red-handed, as described, if any charges were filed, and I have doubts that would happen, it would have been pled to a misdemeanor theft and the person would have done no jail time, unless they were currently on probation or had a long record.

With the current economy the state does not have the time or interest to prosecute minor property crimes (which is how they would see this) or pay the costs of sticking someone in jail for a few weeks.

[einhorn]

Oh, and battery is a civil tort, not a criminal offense in Washington.

[trburl]

Ok Legal Eagles, serious question here:

What happens if I am solo, the guy takes my board, won't give it back, and he catches a beatdown from me, and me alone, because of it?

Am I going to jail for reclaiming my property in Washington?

You know, rhetorical question and all... But, just looking at these facts, he'd have about 30 seconds to give me my board before I cracked his drunk a$$ and took it back.

Whats the outcome there? Some people don't react well to their gear wondering off in some non-sailors drunken hands, and some people don't wait to hear the "story" when their stuff gets stolen. Maybe not the best plan, but its the whole nature vs. nurture thing there.

I mean, its doubtful he gets what a civil tort is... So if its not a criminal offense...???

[WMP]

I had my garage burglarized a few years ago when the house I rent out next to it was empty.... the thieves toke off with all of my kiting gear, most of the windsurfing gear, and much of my camping gear.

Last month, same situation..... different outcome. I had walked down to the empty rental house from up the street and was painting the inside when these two dudes drove up and backed their pickup truck into the driveway. I thought they were there to look at the rental house, but no, they immediately went and looked into the windows of the garage. I went out and yelled "HEY... WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING ???" They claimed they thought the house was empty. I asked if they were there to see the empty rental house, and they said "no". Huh. Really friendly folks too, really smooth talking..... said they were just in the area. The one dude looked like Howie Mandel, the other was much younger with dark, medium length hair.... looked like a kiter. Fact, I've seen these guys before. They were driving a silver/ taupe GMC pickup truck.

I made a full report with the local county sheriff..... it was obvious they were looking for something to rip off.