$1 Mill Bail for Darling Suspects
A million bucks. That’s the bail amount for the three geniuses who apparently decided stealing a multimillion dollar yacht to go on a drunken joy ride was a good idea. Leslie Gardner, 63, Dario Mira, 54, and Lisa Modawell, 55, were arrested on Monday when the 82-ft Oyster they allegedly stole from Sausalito Yacht Harbor in the middle of the night somehow grounded at Pacifica. John Fruth, Darling‘s owner, called police after seeing his boat in a news report that morning. Can you imagine?!
A popular destination for surfers, Pacifica is known for its killer wave action, and that same action really did a number on the immaculate Darling. Sausalito’s Parker Diving Service hit the ground running on Monday to salvage the boat. Local diver Tim Sell, who worked with Parker on the recovery, says they worked for 20 hours or so to secure the boat and tow it to Bay Marine Boatworks in Pt. Richmond.
"It looked like they were partying down below," Sell notes. "There were Sierra Nevada beer bottles and pizza boxes everywhere." Sell says what had once been a luxuriously appointed interior was a mess of garbage, water and the contents of many lockers.
It’s too soon to tell what kind of structural damage Darling suffered as she was pounded by the surf, but these photos from George Lythcott show some of her injuries: a cracked keel, a leaking fuel tank and a severely damaged rudder.
The latest reports say that the those who stole Darling broke into her and found the keys to the engine. Leaving the engine key in the chart table or on a hook near the engine is not an uncommon practice for boat owners, and every time a sailboat is stolen — which, thankfully, is a rare occurrence — we admonish readers to at least take the engine key with them when they leave their boat.
Now we just need to take our own advice.