[Paddlewise] Stolen boat found but can't get it back.

   In March of 2001 I had my boat stolen. I reported it to the police and to 
this list at that time. My boat is an early model Necky Arluk II, and fairly 
unique. Not very many of those early models were made before they were 
refined, and darn few made it to Southern California. I have used that boat 
for trips in Canada and Baja and all parts in-between. I have also worked as 
a kayaking instructor for close to fifteen years during which the majority of 
my classes were taught from the seat of my old Arluk. I always figured that I 
would eventually find the boat in that the boat sticks out like a sore thumb 
to those who know a thing or two about sea kayaks, and a great many people 
know my boat. 
   On a sunny afternoon in November of 2002 Duane was playing hooky from work 
and went for a paddle down the coast in the middle of the week. As he 
approached Laguna Beach he spotted another paddler on the water and went over 
to say hi. As Duane got closer he recognized that the paddler was in my 
stolen boat! Duane tried to casually engage the fellow in a conversation to 
get some information from him, but the fellow became suspicious. So Duane 
just confronted him and told the fellow that the boat he was in was stolen. 
They parted company and Duane went back to report the incident to the Harbor 
Patrol. He then managed to contact me, at which point I left work and spent 
the rest of the day cruising up and down the coast looking for my boat - to 
no avail.
   Apparently the encounter with Duane spooked the guy in my boat to the 
point that he went back to a small cove in Laguna Beach, probably the one he 
launched from, and attempted to scuttle the boat. The boat washed up later, 
and was recovered by the lifeguards. The lifeguard policy is that they will 
hang onto found items for three months, after which they can keep them. Three 
months came and went, so one lifeguard promptly claimed the boat as his, and 
then sold it to a friend for five hundred dollars. The friend, Frank, came to 
the shop I work out of looking for parts for the boat to attempt to restore 
it since the boat had been heavily neglected and now needs a lot of work. 
Frank showed some pictures of the boat to the guys in the shop, trying to 
determine just what kind of boat it was that he had. Of course the guys in 
the shop immediately recognized the boat as the one that had been stolen from 
me, and they had Frank call me. 
   Upon receiving the phone call I dropped everything and ran over to the 
shop to meet Frank. One look at the pictures was all I needed to identify the 
boat as mine. Frank seems like a nice enough fellow who is just stuck in the 
middle, however he is out five hundred dollars, and apparently the lifeguard 
does not want to refund the money! So after two long years of searching for 
my boat I finally find it --- but I can't seem to get it back!!!!!! 
Unfortunately the boat does not have any serial numbers that can be used to 
positively identify it as mine. I can, however, easily produce at least fifty 
witness's that can easily recognize it, and of course I have pictures. Does 
anybody on this list have any ideas of what I can do here? I am soooo 
frustrated I could just scream!

Scott
So.Cal. 

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