BRADENTON BEACH – When Paul Koelkebeck anchored his boat to have dinner at the Gulf Drive Cafe on Saturday, Sept. 5, the last thing he expected to see from his table was his boat driving by.
According to Bradenton Beach police, Koelkebeck and a few friends had anchored the boat just offshore with two anchors, then came up to the Gulf Drive Cafe to eat dinner. During dinner, Koelkebeck saw a man driving away in his boat. The group yelled in hopes of getting the suspect to stop and bring the boat to shore, but it was his lack of knowledge about operating boats that kept him from going very far.
Witnesses said the suspect, Zachary Shattuck, 28, unknowingly sucked an anchor line into the intake grate of the boat, so it wasn’t running the way it should. The man was also dragging the second anchor during the attempted theft and had no idea how to drive the boat, eventually coming so close to shore that Koelkebeck was able to jump on board, at which time the thief jumped off.
As the suspect sat down on the beach, Bradenton Beach police officer Matthew Lincoln arrived at the scene, dispatched in reference to a stolen vehicle.
“By the time I made it to the beach where the incident took place, the defendant was sitting on the beach with a few people standing around him,” Lincoln wrote in his report.
The officer met with some bystanders, who said a man had stolen another man’s boat and had been driving it up and down the beach just offshore.
“I took the boat and I messed up. It’s all my fault,” admitted Shattuck, according to the police report. The suspect also told police he hadn’t slept in days and didn’t really know why he took the boat.
Shattuck was arrested for grand theft motor vehicle and transported to the Manatee County Jail, where he was being held on $7,500 bond.
