Scott Laird smiles from inside his boat.

Photo Credit: Tyee Club BC | Facebook

Campbell River Comes Through

Hiding a boat when all eyes are looking for it? Not gonna happen

Good news for this fisher and his trusty boat

Last week we wrote about a Campbell River man who needed some extra care and eyes from the community.

Scott Laird is legally blind, and someone had stolen his Tyee fishing boat.

With the help of friends, he’d scoured the marina to no avail, and put out a call for help to anyone who’d listen.

We’re pleased to let everyone know, Campbell River came through.

While police had launched an investigation, the Tyee fishing community took the theft personally, and went full Sherlock Holmes on the case.

“Everybody felt it,” said Tyee Club Weighmaster Bob Goodwin. “As they came in off the water I told them and everybody felt the same, ‘we’ve got to get that boat back,’ they said.” he told Chek News.

They did full scout sessions throughout all the waterways near Campbell River, focusing on Quadra.

“We felt confident it was on Quadra because somebody else noted it,” said Laird. “Another mariner saw a boat like it go by at 4 p.m. on Wednesday of that week.”

With the help of a whole lot of eyes, ears, and community intel, they finally located the boat. And when they did, they skipped right past 911 calls—removing and returning it themselves early Thursday morning.

“It was just a bad show and another bad guy harming a good guy and so some people picked it up and took it all the way and here’s the conclusion to that,” said Laird in a Chek News interview.

Because police weren’t involved, no arrests were made, but all’s well that ends well and community justice was served.

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