The Oak Harbor harbormaster is asking people with boats at the marina to check to see if the motor or anything else has been stolen.

Over the last 10 days or so, at least four Honda outboard motors were stolen from boats moored at the marina.

Oak Harbor residents Luke and Jenn Furber, with their daughter Betty, went down to the marina Sunday to take a last sail of the year aboard their 26-foot boat, Elisabeth Rose. They discovered the $2,000 engine and gas tank had been stolen.

“It’s a bad way to end the sailing season,” Jenn said.

Harbormaster Dave Williams said he’s in the process of notifying tenants and asking them to check on their boats. He said the first report of a stolen motor was early last week. He believes the thief or thieves used a boat to get away with the heavy motors.

“There’s a very good likelihood that it was done from the water,” he said. “It looks like a professional event to me. Well planned out.”

Williams said the thefts could have all happened in one night, perhaps Oct. 2 or 3.

Yet Capt. Rick Wallace with the Oak Harbor Police said the people who reported the thefts indicated that their motors disappeared during different days over the last week.

“I don’t know that it’s a rash, but it is troubling,” Wallace said of the thefts. He said the thieves would face felony theft charges if caught.

Williams said he also notified other marinas. He said periodically marinas in the area will be “hit” by organized thieves. Yet this is the first time in at least 15 years that this has occurred in Oak Harbor.

“We’ve been fortunate that we’ve dodged the bullet for as long as we have,” he said.

For the Furber family, the crime was a shock.

“I always thought the marina was really safe and really nice and small-town oriented,” Jenn said.

You can reach News-Times reporter Jessie Stensland at jstensland@whidbeynewstimes.com or call 675-6611.