(PatriotWise.com) — The suspected bandits that have been terrorizing the boating community in the Oakland Estuary since last summer were finally arrested in late March, Fox News reported.
Oakland police confirmed that the three suspects, accused of breaking into a business along San Francisco’s east waterfront, were apprehended on the estuary on March 28.
The 800-foot-wide Oakland Estuary separates the cities of Oakland and Alameda. It features multiple marinas with around 3,000 boat slips, where many full-time residents live on yachts and houseboats.
The bandits, dubbed by residents as the “East Bay Pirates,” have been using discarded or stolen boats to raid and rob the residents in the Oakland Estuary for nearly a year, stealing valuables and equipment, and sometimes stealing entire boats.
After their raids, the bandits would abandon or sink the boats they used miles away along the Oakland Harbor shorelines.
As the crimes continued, residents grew frustrated with the lack of law enforcement and, in some instances, took matters into their own hands by confronting the pirates to get their property back.
Local law enforcement and the US Coast Guard began patrolling the estuary to deter the East Bay Pirates, with the Coast Guard deploying multi-mission boats to make regular patrols.
In an interview with Fox News last September, Alameda Police Chief Nishant Joshi described the effort to deter the pirates as a “regional approach,” explaining that jurisdiction on the water was difficult to determine.
The pirates, believed to be homeless men from the encampments in Oakland, were using small boats to raid yachts on the estuary. They also targeted waterfront businesses.
One business owner told the local NBC affiliate last year that his employees recovered some of the items stolen from his shop near the homeless encampments in Union Point Park in Oakland.
The three unnamed suspects allegedly broke into a waterfront business on March 13 and were captured on surveillance video in the Oakland Estuary.
Law enforcement obtained search warrants for the small boats used by the pirates and found the stolen property.
Oakland police referred the case to the Alameda County District Attorney’s office.
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