Burglars steal at least $51K in electronics from 25 boats at Hilton Head boathouse
Twenty-five boats stored in Hilton Head Island’s well-known Skull Creek Boathouse were burglarized on Sunday in what may have been an organized theft of valuable GPS technology, according to a report from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.
At least $51,600 in Garmin GPS systems and electronics were stolen from 11 boats. The 14 remaining boat owners affected by the break-in have not yet been contacted by the sheriff’s office, so the total value of the stolen electronics is not yet known, the report shows.
The break-in happened around 8 p.m. Sunday, when security footage shows flashlights inside the closed business.
No one was seen entering the building, but the flashlights appear on the footage until 4 a.m. Monday.
On Monday, a Boathouse employee reported that dock lines were hanging down from the second and third level of the storage facility, and that the building’s side door was open, the report said.
Police found cuttings and wires of electric systems on the floor of the boathouse, and then discovered that 25 boats had been broken into. Various electronics, including the GPS systems, were gone.
One of the boats is owned by Bass Pro Shops President Jim Hagale, who keeps a second home at Palmetto Bluff. Collins Doughtie of Bluffton is the boat’s manager. Doughtie said the boat’s GPS system was unscrewed from its frame and its wires cut — making it more difficult to eventually replace.
“I’ve never seen anything like it here,” Doughtie said. “They knew exactly which boats to hit and which boats not to hit.”
Sheriff’s Office deputies collected DNA swabs from employees who were on the scene and those who have had recent contact with the boats, according to the report.
Doughtie and others have suggested the break-in was an organized effort.
Maj. Bob Bromage, spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office, said highly organized electronics burglaries often move up and down the East Coast. The report does not list any arrests or suspects.
Last May, a string of break-ins at marinas across Florida were believed to be connected. The break-ins happened in Pensacola and in Franklin County, where over $150,000 of electronics were stolen, according to reporting from a TV station there.
“Most likely these people have been in the system before. I doubt anybody that’s doing this is their first time. They’re probably seasoned career criminals, the kind of people that need to be in prison and out of our society,” Franklin County Sheriff A.J. Smith told MyPanhandle.com.
Doughtie said the GPS systems and other electronics are in high demand because the coronavirus has slowed down shipping of the units from China. That makes buying and replacing GPS systems even more difficult for owners living in other parts of the country.
He said Hagale’s GPS system was worth about $15,000. It wasn’t yet included on the itemized list in the sheriff’s office report, which totaled over $50,000 loss.
