\n"}\n\n\nIs\u2026 is boat theft a thing? Like not from the marina, just all those boat trailers that Boat Trailer Guys have in driveways, yards, street parking across the country, guarded by locks that car thieves woulda laughed at in 1980
\nMaybe in boaty areas where there\u2019s enough infrastructure to fence it.
\n\u2026
\nIs Boat Trailer Theft Insurance Fraud a thing?
\nSee this is where it falls apart is if Boat Trailer theft was a thing Boat Trailer Theft Insurance Fraud would have to be a thing, and if that was a thing I\u2019d have heard it as a trope re: consultant/car dealership county Republican Party gammon by now
\nApparently boat theft is a thing:
Recently, Seaworthy undertook an analysis of our insurance files to determine the top 10 claims. Boat thefts came in at No. 9. However, while thefts only rank 16th in number of claims, they leap to the top in average payout. This makes sense. Our claims statistics show that only one stolen boat in 10 is ever recovered. The rest are total losses; even those that are recovered are rarely worth much.If we had to build the typical boat that\u2019s most commonly stolen, it would look like this:
- Less than 26 feet
- Trailerable
- Runabout
- OutboardTrailer boats, commonly parked in driveways or backyards, are prime targets for criminals, as they\u2019re often shielded from view and come complete with wheels for a fast getaway.
Florida is the hands-down capital of boat thefts with almost half (47 percent) of the theft claims occurring in the Sunshine State. Miami-Dade had the vast majority of thefts in Florida, followed by Broward and Palm Beach counties.
Want to guess the No. 2 state? If you said California, you\u2019re right. Texas comes in as No. 3. It might surprise you to see Georgia at No. 4, but the state is one of the few that don\u2019t require titles, which means a thief can steal a boat there, take it to nearby South Carolina and get a title, then sell it somewhere else. Ditto No. 5, Mississippi.
Typically, boats are stolen, stripped of everything valuable, and left in a vacant lot or by the side of a lonely road. Sometimes the empty hulls are lit on fire to make them harder to identify. The engines, electronics, anchors, biminis \u2014 in fact, almost everything that\u2019s removable \u2014 are taken. One of our investigators says that if the thieves could take the gelcoat, they would.
The stripped parts are then resold to unsuspecting (or sometimes suspecting) shops and boaters, often through eBay or Craigslist. Other stolen boats have their hull identification numbers and paperwork altered, then they\u2019re sold to new owners. This is especially easy to do for boats stolen in non-title states because of the ease in getting new paperwork.