KNIGHTSEN — Hot-wiring a crane in an attempt to drag a sunken boat out of the Dutch Slough might have seemed like a good idea at the time, but police say it went horribly wrong for an East Contra Costa man.
In the end, the crane was left blocking a Holland Tract roadway, and caused so much damage that police determined it qualified as felony vandalism, court records show. In the end, he failed to pull the boat from its watery grave, authorities said.
The Jan. 3 incident resulted in the suspect, a 35-year-old Knightsen man, being arrested Wednesday on suspicion of auto theft and vandalism, court records show. He hasn’t been charged, but police did bring him to court on Thursday to appear in an unrelated misdemeanor resisting arrest case from December, records show.
Authorities say they identified the man as a suspect because they were familiar with his boat, which was sticking out of the water enough for a Contra Costa Sheriff’s Deputy to identify it. They served a search warrant on the man and found a message where he said “I got the crane” but needed “a hacksaw” to complete his task, authorities said in court filings.
Police believe the crane was stolen from a nearby area between late December and Jan. 3, when it was discovered resting on the roadway.
