SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) -
A man has been arrested and charged in connection with the theft of a 14-foot Carolina Skiff from Hogan's Marina.
On Feb. 2, the Savannah-Chatham Metro Police Marine Patrol responded to Hogan's Marina to investigate a boat theft.
A Daufuskie Island man told police that his 14-foot Carolina Skiff had been stolen overnight. He saw a boat that looked like his being pulled between two other boats the night before while traveling home, but didn't know it was his boat until he discovered it missing, according to police.
SCMPD Marine Patrol went to where the boat was last seen. A crab boat was located and the captain interviewed. The captain told SCMPD Marine Patrol that a man on a sailboat was low on fuel and requested help. Boaters are required by federal law to help other mariners in distress, according to police.
Then just north of the Savannah River in South Carolina, the captain was told by the man that he was low on fuel and his outboard motor on the sailboat was causing problems. The sailor asked him to help take the Yamaha outboard off of the Carolina Skiff and put it on the sailboat, according to police. The man told the captain that he was going to Brunswick. The captain then saw the man head north in the Intracoastal Waterway and later saw that same boat anchored in Bull Creek near marker "34" in South Carolina.
Later that day, the U.S. Coast Guard alerted SCMPD that they were alongside a white sail boat with red trim, a J14 Carolina Skiff without a motor attached, in Bull Creek adjacent to marker "34."
The boat's only occupant Rodney Cleon Gaskill Jr., 49, was detained for questioning and that charges would be pending, according to police. But chain of command declined to take him into custody that night, according to police.
SCMPD Marine Patrol got warrants the next day on charges of theft by taking (felony,) transporting stolen property across state lines and criminal trespass.
With the assistance of the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office, Gaskill was found at the Harbor Town Marina. He was alerted of the SCMPD warrants out on him and voluntarily returned to Georgia, where he was taken into custody, moved to the Chatham County Detention Center and charged, according to police.
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