Homeless pirates are now marauding onto houseboats in the San Francisco Bay in the latest criminal enterprise to plague California.
Residents along the Oakland-Alameda estuary told a community meeting last week that boats have been cut loose so that they drift out to sea.
One woman even recounted how she had rescued another resident on a sailboat in the middle of the night after pirates slashed his rigging lines during an argument.
The brazen thieves – whose homeless encampments have spilled out of the city – are taking small motor-powered dinghies and using them in smash-and-grab raids on larger vessels and houseboats.
During Wednesday’s San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission’s enforcement meeting community members spoke of having to fight off the pirates themselves as police in the Democrat-run city have failed to intervene.
Surveillance footage shows seafaring bandits riding off, leaving a marina in the Bay Area. Residents believe the thieves are coming from the growing homeless population
Pirates leave ransacked boats abandoned and covered in graffiti. One resident shared she rescued a man after he said pirates cut his sailboat line during an argument
‘The open shoreline of the (Oakland-Alameda) estuary is littered with sunken wrecks and derelict, end-of-life vessels, and crime has risen to truly intolerable levels,’ said former harbor master for the area Brock de Lappe.
One woman recounted a time she rescued a man on a sailboat in the middle of the night after he said pirates cut his sailboat line during an argument.
‘If there had been any wind at the time I wouldn’t have been able to go out there and rescue this young man who had no motor and no ability to sail that boat,’ she said.
This summer, the Bay Area saw a rise in crime on the water. Photos and videos posted online showed seafaring bandits on dinghies speeding through the water at night following their thefts.
‘Multiple vessels have been stolen and ransacked. Victims have had to resort to personally confronting the criminals to recover their property without the benefit of police support. Is this appropriate activity for a 79-year-old senior?’ said de Lappe.
The former harbor master told KGO that pirates have been targeting five different locations along the channel – including Jack London Square, the Jack London Square Aquatic Center, the Estuary Channel west of the Bayside Hotel, Union Point Park West, Union Point Park East.
Kame Richards with Alameda community sailing center, an organization that teaches young kids to sail, shared that four of their eight safety boats have been stolen and police were slow to react.
Bay Area residents have resorted to chasing off the thieves themselves since there is little police help
The bandits are abandoning or sinking the boats after they have used them to commit their crimes
‘We cannot imagine a way where we can just be handing off $35,000 boats to thieves and doing nothing about it,’ said Richards.
Residents said the pirates are coming from the city’s growing homeless population that is overflowing to the waterways.
Alameda, which is considered a suburb of Oakland, is an island with a population just under 80,000 according to the US Census.
Data from the Alameda Police Department showed that in August burglary is up 18.6 percent compared to last year, and theft over $400 is up 10.2 percent.
Crime is soaring in the surrounding cities of Oakland and San Francisco.
In the Bay Area a store clerk was set on fire after he tried to stop a serial homeless shoplifter from stealing.
The latest crime data report for the Oakland Police Department shows robbery is up 34 percent year to date, burglary is up 38 percent and motor vehicle theft is up 51 percent.
The new wave of crime involves pirates sneaking up on dinghies and stealing items from boats in the harbor
Thieves are using smaller boats to get to marinas with houseboats and yachts where they ransack them and escape on their dinghies
During San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission’s enforcement meeting residents noted the homeless population from the surrounding cities is making its way to their shores
The surrounding cities of Oakland and San Francisco have seen waves of crime and a growing homeless population
Earlier this summer the Oakland police advised residents to reinforce their doors with braces or a security bar and install security cameras due to an increase in brazen home invasions.
San Francisco is grappling with close to 40,000 homeless people and more robberies and motor vehicle thefts reported by the police department than the same time last year.
Alameda Police Chief Nishant Joshi told Fox News Digital that his department is working with the Oakland PD and the Coast Guard to fight the marine crime.
‘In the waterways, it’s very difficult to draw a line, there are no roadways or fence lines, so we all have a shared interest, much like crime as a whole, to deal with this as a regional approach,’ said Joshi.
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