Early Christmas Eve morning three boat thieves made off from a Florida harbor with a stolen 36 foot go-fast boat in hopes of fleeing to Mexico with their unearned prize. Beginning at 2am the alleged boat thieves started their escapade by ramming a sheriff’s boat in hopes of disabling them, but the craft was able to maneuver away at the last second before being run over and they quickly recovered in order to chase down the stolen powerboat.
The chase was nothing short of ludicrous. “It was like something out of a James Bond or Mission Impossible movie,” Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott said at a press conference. David Llanes Vasquez, 33, Vidal Farfan-Ramirez, 23, and Raul De La Vega Sauri, 25 led authorities on a chase that spanned 300 miles and lasted more than 20 hours that ended Christmas morning. Continuing in James Bond like fashion, the Coast Guard deployed 3 aircraft, a smaller patrol boat, and a full fledged cutter to chase down the thieves. The trio was able to outrun law enforcement at first but ended up throwing in the towel off the cost of Mexico.
Boat thefts are becoming an increasing problem, especially in Florida where there are concerns of increasing thefts by organized crime rings. If these three were able to defeat the anti theft devices on the boat with ease then what can they achieve next? Fortunately for this owner his $350,000 boat was returned in one piece with only an empty gas tank to show for the crime.
Maybe next time they’ll think twice and put on an action movie instead.
