Hey y'all,

     Last year I lost my Jackson Villain on the interstate.

     It's on Craigslist now...any adivce? It's in Issaquah.

Jim

hope you get your boat back Jim!!

If you have something in writing from the store\company you bought it from that shows the serial number, then you can present that first to him to prove that the boat is yours.  If he resists, then you can tell him you will show it to the cop that you are about to call.  From my recollection of stories about stolen goods and such, the cop wants to see some kind of written proof so there is no question of ownership.  I am pretty sure there isn't any kind of "finders keepers" law in case he tries to pull that card.  According to my quick read on WA law, he would have to go through a significant process of reporting the item to the police, attempting to notify owner through public notice, etc.  Here is that statute:  http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=63.21

Edited by Scott_H - 05 Sep 2012 at 1:11pm

hey Jim!

I hope you got your boat back, keep us updated!

that's great news... glad you got your boat back!

Wow Jim  glad it worked out !

Hey, good question James. It's kind of a long story, but it was not too large of a fee. The guy with the boat actually didn't want any money and seemed genuine in his desire to be honest. I was initially quite put off by his pulling the craigslist add down when he found out the boat my have been stolen. That seemed to imply a sense of guilt.

While he may have been lying, just as likely he was getting the wrong end of the deal since he said he got it from some other guy. The deputy knew the parties involved and seemed to be able to back up this story. The fee was enough to hopefully counter-balance any angst. I didn't want the guy to feel angry and tempted to break windows at the middle middle get in. The boat was lost and recovered in North Bend. Thanks you all for the cool community verbal support.

Funny, my creek boat collection seems to keep growing.

I find it amazing that after 20 months the boat was recovered off of craigslist in basically original condition, minus the airbags for some reason. I even got my throwbag, flipline, carabiners, and breakdown paddle back. Awesome!

Oh, for everyone's curiosity...it sounds likely that it was stolen by this one particular dude from my truck's canopy rack during the superbowl party two years ago. I must not have noticed it gone when I went to my truck and drove home that night.

An alternative explanation is that it came unstrapped and fell off while driving home that night and was found by the road. It does not have road rash though, so this supports the theft theory.

The truth is, we'll never know. And, that's ok with me. I do have a lock on my boats now though...

I'm thinking it was stolen Jim. 

Edited by KBfree - 06 Sep 2012 at 10:21pm