He remained in the shadows in his small boat looking out over the water and focused on the three people in the yacht, talking, drinking, and seemingly just having fun. He had been sitting there in the dark for hours, watching and listening. He could hear them talking but was too far away to hear their conversation clearly. If he moved any closer, they would see him. He had been shown pictures of the three people gathered there, and knew their backgrounds. What were they up to?
The week before, Ben had talked with his editor about being given “bland” stories to cover – wedding destinations, promotions at large companies, a new store coming to the area, etc. Nothing exciting. He wanted something a bit more “meaty” or perhaps an investigative story to follow up on. That’s when his editor assigned him to this story – an investigative report on the activity of the three people on the yacht – one woman and two men. The men had long rap sheets including convictions for theft and transportation of stolen goods across US borders – TVs and other technology equipment that could be easily sold and not easily traced. The woman was also a known criminal, but typically she was interested in transporting stolen gems. Why were the three of them together on this yacht? It seemed doubtful that they were merely socializing, chitchatting.
The yacht began moving slowly through the water. It docked at a marina on the far shore. Ben rowed quietly back toward the near shore, making sure he didn’t make any noise. With his binoculars he could see them walk towards the lone car sitting in the parking lot of the seaside restaurant.
The next day he saw the three of them again. This time the two men talked at length, but the woman drove away. Ben wasn’t sure who to keep track of, and decided to keep watching the two men. Later that evening, the woman returned. Ben didn’t see her arrive but there she was with the men.
The following day one of the men drove away and returned that evening to join the other two. Ben was having trouble determining who to track when the group split up. Should he follow the woman, the taller man, or the burly man? This time Ben followed the burly man when he drove off in his Honda. The burly man drove to the border, crossed at the appropriate place, and returned a couple of days later. Was he selling or fencing goods of some sort, or just taking a day or two of vacation?
That evening, Ben watched the three people eat dinner at a well known restaurant. He sat across the restaurant from them so he couldn’t hear them but could see them clearly. They seemed to be celebrating – having champagne and toasting one another. Later they again went sailing on the yacht, with Ben watching from his little rowboat at a safe distance. Safe, until he sneezed! All three people suddenly looked in his direction. One of them pointed. The burly man called out, “What are you doing out here this late?” He didn’t dare answer, but quietly rowed away as quickly as he could, trying to stay in the shadows.
The tall man let down a lifeboat with an outboard motor on it, and headed his way. That’s when Ben was able to make out a small cove to his right and he rowed into it and held onto the dense reeds on the shore. The tall man didn’t see him there and motored on by. He eventually turned around and returned to the yacht.
As Ben was writing up his story the next day, a thought suddenly came to him. He wrote down everything that had happened, what he saw, where everyone went, what they did when they returned, etc. It dawned on him what was going on. Then he visited the local police, explained the situation, and they put a couple of detectives on the case. As it turned out, Ben had been right.
The two men and the woman were not taking technology items or gems across the border. They were taking the cars they drove! Ben never saw them driving when they returned from their day trips, and he finally figured out they didn’t come back in the cars they drove over the border. All three were arrested and Ben got his front page story at last!
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