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In what looked like a nautical mishap, the 82' Sailing Yacht "Darling" mysteriously want aground in Pacifica this AM
We received a call from a friend at 7:00 AM that there was a boat on the beach and hustled down to see for ourseleves
Pacifica Police, Fire, State Parks swim rescue, USCG are all there in force...There were 3 people on board and they
refused accept assistance from the USCG, and even after the USCG brought a radio over via a diver on the helo tether,
the crew refused to us it, and went below....
Then things got weird... Evidently the owner of vessel, John Fruth, saw the boat on tv news earlier in the morning and then called Sausalito Police to report it stolen....
What had gone from a salvage and rescue operation, became a crime scene. The police taped off the
beach and took there 4X4 SUV to the beach, trained an automatic weapon on the boat and ordered the crew
to get off.
At times the thieves would come out on deck, play with the anchor, fidget with the steering wheel
or just smoke a cigarette in the cock pit. Al most oblivious to the predicament the were in...
The crowds grew and grew an the news was broadcast about the situation on local TV and Radio and
social media...
Not sure if this was used by authorities, but the operators was behind the tape...
Finally the realization that they had no where to go, the culprits 1 by 1 got to the transom...
The water, you can see, was really really deep, and required a San Mateo County Sheriffs Office jetski
and State Parks Diver to assist
Once the soggy miscreants were "Saved" they were escorted to awaiting Pacifica Police,
frisked, read their rights and got a free ride to jail
As for the yacht iitself, A diving salvage company is enroute and it appeared the authorites were assisting by
readying lines to tow it off when the tide rises...
More photos and follow up Here