Re: Found My Own Boat For Sale Today.....(Stolen, Recovered, Now For Sale)
I had a similar thing happen many years ago. Around 1978 I bought a dealer demo 21 ft cuddy cabin with a 228 HP Mercruiser. In 1985 I decided that I wanted something bigger. I advertised the boat for sale in the local newspaper. In a few days a guy came by accompanied by two highly dressed "ladies" and he had the asking price ($8500) all cash in a paper bag. After we filled out the paperwork he hooked up the boat to the back of a big white Lincoln Town Car and drove off. This should have been my first hint of things to come.
In 1986 I bought a 24 foot "weekender", which I still have.
Around 1998 I received a call for the Department of Natural Resources telling me that my boat (the 1978 boat) was found tied up at the dock of a lake house that was being sold at public auction. The DNR officer said they used the numbers on the boat to trace it back to me.
Since the lake is only 20 miles away I drove to meet the DNR officer. There tied at a floating dock under a shed was my old boat. I had not laid eyes on it in around 13 years. Inside the cuddy cabin were several fans, a TV, and the decor looked like a French House of Ill Repute.
The DNR officer told me that the lake house was being sold at public auction because the owner was a drug dealer who got busted. Everything the drug dealer owned was being sold. I think he had several houses, lots of fancy cars, and my boat.
The drug dealer never bothered to re-register my old boat and it was still in my name after 20 years. Yes I signed the title over to him at the time of the sale, but that is as far as the transaction went.
In the end the court awarded my old boat back to me. It ran fine and other than the gaudy decor in the cuddy cabin, it looked just about like it did when I sold it. I think the guy who bought it from me 13 years earlier spent a lot more time "entertaining" in the cuddy cabin than he did operating the boat on the lake.
I sold it soon after the court awarded it back to me. This time I insisted on a certified check, which I got.
This is how I legally sold the same boat twice, 13 years apart. Ironically after over 40 years as a boat owner, this is the ONLY boat I ever made money on.
