RICHMOND — Four people were arrested after a burglary on a boat led to the discovery of an alleged chop-shop operation and several stolen items near the Richmond-San Rafael bridge, a police spokeswoman said Monday.
“It’s a pretty big pop,” spokeswoman Richmond police Sgt. Nicole Abetkov said. “The way it unfolded is not something you see everyday.”
Police were called around 3 a.m. Friday after a boat owner found a man and woman aboard his vessel anchored near the Point San Pablo Yacht Harbor. The owner scared them away, Abetkov said, but they escaped by taking another boat that police found Saturday morning around 10 a.m. near a suspected chop-shop operation at Castro Point, a plot of land accessible by sea and land.
Daniel Brenton, 32, and Megan Strawl, 24, were arrested and police since have arrested two more people, Abetkov said. The pair arrested over the weekend were not identified because doing so might compromise an investigation that could yield more arrests, she said.
Police did not say what charges those arrested are likely to face, though Abetkov said Brenton was arrested on suspicion of stealing the boat used for the momentary getaway.
Abetkov said the Richmond Police Department’s Marine Unit recognized the description of that boat as one that frequented an area at Castro Point, and police arriving on land and from the water found the boat stolen from Point San Pablo Yacht Harbor.
Police found the boat in the area where an encampment housed what Abetkov called “a huge chop-shop operation.” By Monday morning, police had recovered six cars and a recreation vehicle, three boat trailers, one jet ski, one boat, tools and other assorted items, Abetkov said.
Police were enlisting the aid of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Coast Guard to restore the area where the operation was found, Abetkov said. Castro Point is located primarily in Point Molate Beach Park, in between plots of land owned by Chevron and the California Department of Transportation.
Contact Rick Hurd at 925-945-4789 and follow him at Twitter.com/3rderh
