Wellington Private Investigator, Dion Neill. Stuff Article – Thieves busy stealing a boat a day across New Zealand.
October 9, 2024
Thieves busy stealing a boat a day across New Zealand.
Benn Bathgate
As Spring arrives and the region’s boaties get ready to hit the water again, authorities are urging owners to take safety measures to avoid joining the hundreds of victims who have had boats and trailers nicked from the backyard.
According to provisional police data, between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023, there were 378 formal reports of a boat, dinghy or kayak stolen.
“However, this does not give an exact number of boats stolen as it is common for multiple jet skis or kayaks to be stolen in the same incident,” a police spokesperson said.
One indication of the number of thefts can be found, however, on the police stolen boat webpage – which at the time of writing runs to 137 pages.
While the precise numbers of stolen boats may be unclear, police said a number of common factors around boat theft are well understood.
“Most boats and jet skis are stolen on trailers,” the police spokesperson said.
“These are usually taken from the owner’s yard, their garage or the roadside. Very few boats are stolen from moorings or from inside a marina.”
The police also said there there was no “typical” course of action thieves take with stolen boats.
According to Marine Insurer managing director Aaron Mortimer, between 30-40% of the recovered boats are found simply as “a byproduct of other investigations”.
“Could be some gang house, something stolen in Auckland found under a tree in Northland.”
Mortimer also said he believed there had been an uptick in boat thefts.
“Probably a touch more in the last 12 months than in the [previous] 12,” he said.
“It goes in phases, sometimes there are spates, depending on if gangs are involved.
“It’s hard to put a figure in terms of how many get stolen.”
As for where stolen boats tend to end up, one person with an inside track on that is Wellington based private investigator and The Neill Group (TNG) founder Dion Neill.
He told the Waikato Times that in the past 36 years, he had “located somewhere close to 30, 40 [stolen boats].”
Like Mortimer and the police, he said the vast majority of thefts take place on dry land.
He said he had tracked stolen boats as far away as Sydney, and that they are sometimes used as collateral in drug deals.
Understandably, however, he declined to provide specifics on how he tracks down stolen boats, but he did say many end up on Facebook Marketplace, often repainted, their appearance altered in other ways, and serial numbers removed.
“TradeMe is pretty vigilant,” he said.
Facebook Marketplace, however, is “a huge wild west”.
Neill said that for boaties looking to ensure they don’t fall victim to theft he would recommend secure storage, somewhere with 24/7 CCTV coverage.
While the Insurance Council was unable to provide theft data, they also had a number of recommendations to deter thefts.
“A significant number of trailered boats are stolen from residential front yards and driveways, so, if you can, store trailered boats out of view from the road and driveway,” a spokesperson said.
Other recommendations included using a chain and lock to secure boat trailers to an immovable object such as a house, use boat trailer wheel clamps, remove auxiliary motors from the boat and all gear if the boat is stored out in the open and recording any serial numbers and identifying features.
Taking photos of your boat and equipment was also recommended.
“Unique identifying features that will not be obvious to thieves should be recorded.”