Pirates are stealing ships in California — and cops are doing little to stop it

Literal pirates are stealing boats out of marinas in the Bay Area, reported The Messenger on Monday — taking advantage of slow response times from police.

"CBS News Bay Area reports that thieves stole a 40-foot Sea Ray yacht from the Embarcadero Cove Marina. Steven Young, the ship’s owner, says that he spotted his stolen yacht a few days later, with the pirates still on board," reported Zachary Rogers. "Young tells CBS News that he immediately called the police but was told that without a police report, authorities couldn’t do anything. Police reportedly never showed and it wasn’t until the insurance company called them that the boat was recovered."

And by that point, the boat had been stripped of all its valuable items and instruments. It was so thoroughly trashed that the insurance company wrote it off as a loss.

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A local boat owner, Michael West, said that the Oakland area has become the "Wild West" for piracy, and said, “Someone in this marina had to defend themselves with guns against the pirates. And that's where it is right now. Everybody here has a gun or knife or a sword or a stick or something, you know, to protect themselves."

The term "piracy" popularly conjures the image of swashbuckling rogues in 18th-century sailing ships, or, in the modern context, usually refers to the theft of software, music, or films. But conventional nautical piracy still occurs, with some of the most famous recent examples being off the coast of Somalia in the Horn of Africa.

Piracy in the United States has also occurred along the border with Mexico, at Falcon Lake, where pirates were known to ambush bass anglers.