THE CALL AND THE BOAT

On 7-24-2010 at about 1430 hours I  got a phone call from the manager the Camperworld Lakeside Resort on Starvation Reservoir.  He said that there was a sunken boat near his ramp.  I went to that location and he told me where to find the boat.  The boat was tied to the shoreline by several lines and was mostly submerged in the water.  Meaning that the outboard motor was under water except for a small part of the bow.  The boat was swamped. 

subject told me that on July 18th another person went with subject2 fishing and afterward the person offered to help him take the boat out of the water as it already had water in it.  He declined the help and left it in.  During the next few days the water level dropped and the vessel, by Wednesday, was only 3 inches from taking on water over the stern.  He told me that Thursday night the boat became swamped as the water continued to drop.  On July 23rd subject spoke with subject2 about his boat sinking and told him he had to get it out.  subject2 told him "I don't give a f--k."  He called us to come and take care of the situation the next day.  subject was worried more about the gas leaking into the water than about the fact the boat had sank.  

VESSEL IMPOUNDED

Park seasonals and Seasonal Park Ranger and I lifted the stern of the boat with the crane on the park boat and then pumped out all the water.  I took the vessel into custody as a "hold for owner," and GT enterprises did the impound. The vessel was impounded for two reasons.  It had been abandoned in my opinion as the owner did not care about what was happening and had left it there for at least 2-3 days in that condition, and the vessel had become an environmental hazard as it was leaking a large amount of gas from it's tank.  I was unable to contact subject2.

LE ACTION TAKEN

A vessel inventory was taken before impound.  LE action will be taken when the person is contacted for polluting a waterway.

SUPPLEMENTAL

subject2  was cited for polluting a waterway on 8-7-2010 by Officer.  I was the complainant on the citation.  He had no explanation of why he did what he did and was apparently happy to pay impound fees and the citation.
Duchesne                      