Boat GPS units stolen from Spanish Main

A boat can be docked, but usually can’t be locked, which means the electronic equipment that sits on the console of boats are a common target for theft.

The Longboat Key Police Department is investigating the theft of multiple GPS units from the Spanish Main Yacht Club neighborhood. For the second time in the past seven months, burglars have targeted Longboat Key to steal the pricey GPS and navigation devices overnight. 

Two police reports were made on June 22 from residents who had boats docked in the slips bordering Sarasota Bay in the Spanish Main community. On one boat, two GPS units were stolen at an estimated total value of $8,000. The other report states GPS units were not missing, but scratches near the units were seen by a detailer who was checking on the boat for the out-of-town owner.

Suspects have not yet been identified, but the incident is under investigation.

Courtesy image

Longboat Key Police Department Capt. Bob Bourque said the crime of stealing GPS units from boats is not new and has occurred on Longboat Key numerous times. The crimes are usually not perpetrated by locals, he said.

“These groups traditionally travel, not just the state but other states too,” Bourque said. “My experience at this point is that most of our known suspects are out of southeast Florida: Miami, Palm Beach, Broward County, those areas.”

That was the case for the eight GPS units that were taken from boats parked at Cannons Marina back in December. 

“Those were in the middle of the night, roughly 2:30 in the morning. Cannons has a very good surveillance system. It was multiple boats and multiple victims because some of the boats weren’t owned by Cannons,” Bourque said. “What we did is we viewed the security footage from Cannons, and there was a very distinctive car that pulled down the road on the north side of Cannons, and then you see two suspects, one completely covered with long-sleeve shirts and hoodies, but you can see them go onto the boats, they steal the GPS units and then you see that car leave.”

Detectives matched the car seen on Cannons surveillance footage to identify the license plate number, and a search warrant was issued to identify cell phone pings from the registered driver of the vehicle, which showed he was on Longboat Key at the time of the burglary.

Shavonte Malone, 33, of Miami, is the main suspect in that case and was arrested in January in connection to separate boat GPS burglaries that occurred in Miami. 

Bourque said Malone will be charged for the Longboat Key robberies in Ft. Myers under a statewide prosecution for multiple burglaries.

“So several agencies are working that particular suspect," Bourque said. 

Though the same type of crime has occurred on Longboat Key twice in the past year, Bourque said it’s not an epidemic.

“You may get someone that hits you two, three times real quick, or you could skip a year and not have any,” Bourque said. “It’s really hard to predict. It’s not like it’s happening every week, but it’s not uncommon for us.”