real sorry man! i sure hope you get it back! too bad, you couldn't have caught them in the act and just happen to have a 12 guage shotgun cocked and loaded for these lowlifes!! just try to get everybody to keep their eyes and ears open! some of these lowlifes ain't too smart and might brag about it a little or even try to get rid of it in the same area they stole it from or even put it on their boat and use it there too! keep the serial # in your wallet and give it to some of your friends and when ya'll see one, check it out! maybe put up some flyers at all the launches with the serial#! if someone, is using it and sees these flyers when they are at the launch, they sure will be very uncomfortable and nervous and probably leave, unless they are truly ignorant!! might be a good idea to call the LDWF, so they can be on the lookout!! GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!

God help them. I got insurance and don't care about the motor. I want the person that did it! How and where it happened just burns me up to no end.

loupgarou, you're wrong, sorry to say!!! you definetely, don't want god to help them, they don't deserve it!!! just leave them in your hands!! take them on a one way fishing trip, accidents happen all the time!!! even though you have insurance, which is great, these lowlifes, will still probably have you in the hole???? it sure would be nice, if they get caught, but probably never happen???? anyway, GO SAINTS!!!!!!! GOOD LUCK!!!!!!

You know whats really messed up about the law is I can tell you right now they will never prosecute anyone for theft of your motor now cause they wasn't caught in the act doing it , the best you can hope for is they catch someone with possession of stolen property which is a much lesser charge --------who ever has it probally has a bill of sale written up already saying he bought it from Joe Blow or it's stripped down for a power head or lower unit

fishhfiles, you mite be right!! you can make a lot more money on parts, than selling the whole motor!! there might be an outboard motor chop shop, just like cars and there probably is, good, good thought!!!! and its a lot harder to get caught selling parts, no serial numbers!!!

Not that it should matter but was your motor bolted down and locked with a motor lock at the transom .Mine is and I still worry about someone stealing it .Seen two guys once trying to remove a 25 hp that was bolted down .Owner caught them .I have mine with one of them locks that slide through but not bolted through the transom maybe I should .Hope you catch those .................... you know they used to hang horse thieves sometimes I think the old ways were better

Had the masterlock slide lock across the handles and also a cable with masterlock running thru handle, safety ring and transom of boat. I don't think you can cut the slide lock off so I think they cut the actual bolts then cut lock off the cable. They took all the locks and cable with them. Only reason I ever had it locked was to prevent someone from stealing it while I had boat parked on the bank of the river while hunting. Never in a Million years did I think someone would come in my yard and do this. Deputy said 25hp is probably most frequently stolen motor. Mine weighed less than a 100 pounds so one guy could have done it easily, kinda hard to pickup a 250 hp fourstroke off the back of a bayboat!

loupgarou,
I can relate to your plight. I resurrected a 63 starcraft lakeboat and put a 25 Merc on it from a CCA auction. Finished the project and called my State Farm man.He said " I wanta come take some pictures since there is no way we could replace". He valued completed rig at $4500. He also informed me that my motor was a hot item. Bolts, clamps,chains,cables as you did but beware!!!!!! As the economy worsens, we all need to go above and beyond normal
protection. I've taken extreme measures to protect my bayboat and would advise all to ramp up

Same thing happened to me in 2003. Two more 25 HP motors were stolen as well on our street that year. They are easy to steal. It turns out my neighbor's daughter actually saw the dude, he was on a ten-speed bike carrying one! He dropped it and somehow got away.

Anyway, the stolen motors were never found, he was never caught, and Katrina probably got them later anyway. I had boat insurance and just replaced mine. Either your boat insurance or homeowners can cover it minus the deductible.

Thieves are scumbags.

I agree with the thought that the way things are going in the economy this kind of stuff is going to happen a lot more ----also agree with the hanging of the horse thief principal ----------I took a lot of extra precautions a while back on my boat , I put one of those thick cable locks thru the holes of the tandem tires then around the frame on my trailer , got a ball tongue lock and a pad lock and park my truck in front of it as much as I can -----check this story out , a Bobcat skidsteer was stolen from the company I was a service manager for and we get a call that it's in a scrape salvage yard off of Martin Luther King , we call NOPD and they meet us a block away , we watch two guys with scrapers and sanders as they remove our decals and phone numbers , 4 car loads of cops come down on them and they come out with a bill of sale , ""NOTHING"" was done to them , not even possesion of stole property , was told that they have to be caught in the act of thief or something has to be found that ties them to the incident like a witness , I guess we were lucky that we got the machine back with a messed up paint job

2 weeks ago someone tried to steal a 8 ft. custom boat of mine out of my pond i called the law and next day found it in woods it was too heavy for them. i put up signs "SMILE FOR GAME CAM NEXT STOP PARRISH JAIL" consider a game cam or put a motion sensitve light by boat--- i also park in front of my bay boat THIEVES BEWARE YOU ARE SLOWER AND BIGGER THAN TEAL!!!!!!!!!!

NOPD has a habit of downgrading crimes in their reports. A few years back, we had a truck stolen from the dealership I worked for. Thief got caught by his probation officer at his monthly meeting in our truck. He was in Orleans, theft was in Jeff. He was charged in Jeff with Auto Theft. JP detective said that in Orleans he would have been charged with unauthorized use of a moveable.

second thought, when it comes to stolen motors, have you ever been checked by ldwf? Have they ever looked at your registration and then checked the serial # on the reg against the serial # on your hull or motor???? I have been checked about 5 times on the water, not once have they asked to see the registration.

So, theoretically, you could steal a boat and motor, and just make up your own numbers and chances of getting caught are nil.

Cajunhopper that is how they attempt to keep the crime rate down, or at least make it appear that its lower than it really is. If they downgrade a bunch of crimes then when the stats come out it doesn't look so bad. BUT we all know that it is worse than they say it is.