Heavily armed Oak Bay police officers boarded a stolen yacht in the middle of the night and arrested a man who claimed to be infected with the COVID-19 virus.
Although the officers suspected the 25-year-old homeless man wasn’t infected, they couldn’t take any chances, Deputy Chief Ray Bernoties said Monday.
“Our officers told him: ‘This COVID-19 thing is pretty serious. You’re going to tie up a lot of resources,’ ” said Bernoties.
But appealing to the man’s good nature didn’t work. He refused to co-operate and repeatedly banged his head on the police car as he was driven to hospital.
The hospital quickly cleared him and the man was driven back to the police department and placed in a cell.
“This is a very serious allegation and this is putting a strain on already busy resources,” Bernoties said. “But we can’t take any risks, not only to our officers, but to others in the cell block or cell-block staff.”
Police received a call at 4:10 a.m. from someone reporting the theft of an expensive yacht from Oak Bay Marina.
Officers called the Canadian Coast Guard for assistance and looked at webcams.
They could see a man paddling a canoe from the shore to the slip at the marina where the 54-foot yacht was docked.
The man forced his way onto the boat, listed for sale for more than $400,000, and drove it near the Oak Bay Beach Hotel.
The coast guard took three Oak Bay officers out to the stolen yacht.
They found the man in bed with a knife. When he claimed to have the virus, they placed a mask on him.
Bernoties is not sure what motivated the man to steal the expensive yacht, whether he was trying to create a permanent home or just wanted one comfortable night at sea.
“After almost three decades of policing, I can’t even try to get into the minds of some people. I can’t really explain why he would do this, which is the case with many criminal activities. But we were pleased we were able to act on it so quickly. We’re very grateful for the help we got from the Canadian Coast Guard and we’re thankful this went down safely,” Bernoties said.
“One of our members was heavily armed because we don’t know what we’re facing. We’re not experts at boarding vessels on the water. But our members were able to take some personal risk and de-escalate the situation in such a way that nobody got hurt.”
Police are now taking statements from witnesses and the owner of the boat.
The Son Seeker IV has been towed back to Oak Bay Marina.
During the pandemic, Oak Bay officers are using their own discretion in how they handle calls. Members are practising social distancing and masking up quickly if they need to be hands on, Bernoties said.
While members generally go to every call in Oak Bay, they’ve switched to phoning people when possible.
“If it’s a theft that occurred last night, whereas we normally go and try to comfort the person, now we’re using the phone. We’re trying to change our level of service to some degree to allow for that.”
The suspect, who is well known to police, is facing charges of theft over $5,000, possession of stolen property and mischief over $5,000 for damage to the boat.
