Under the cover of darkness: The mysterious disappearance of scuba tanks

Night after night, swimming or kayaking from boat to boat, thieves have quietly ripped off George Town dive operators of thousands of dollars worth of scuba tanks.

Over the course of several months, more than 50 tanks have been taken from boats in the harbour. 

The cylinders, used by divers to breathe compressed air underwater, have been taken in twos and fours – a slow-drip impact that is now adding up to a major problem for several businesses.

It’s not clear where the tanks are going. Dive operators are convinced there is no significant on-island resale market and speculate they are either being shipped overseas or sold for scrap metal. 

“They have to be being stolen to order,” one operator told us.

“No-one is just swimming out every night taking dive tanks without being able to sell them.”

The inconvenience and expense goes beyond the $250 cost of replacing tanks that would have to be shipped from Florida. Businesses have invested in security guards, new locked storage lockers and suffered from a reduced capacity to cater to divers.

The thefts, from dive boats sitting on moorings off the Lobster Pot, began around March.

“Between all of us we are now talking about 50 tanks that have been taken,” said Giles Charlton-Jones, of Wall to Wall Diving, based out of the old Atlantis building in George Town.

“I think they are swimming, because they are taking them two or four at a time.”

There is evidence to support that theory.

Special forces tactics

One of the worst-hit operators, Living the Dream Divers, hired a security guard and put in cameras at its shop, moving the boat to its own dock, after numerous raids this year.

The thieves came anyway, slipping quietly into the water, out of sight of the cameras, and swimming to the back of the boat.

“It was almost like special forces stuff,” said business owner Gary Frost.

The thieves were caught in the act by the guard, who raised the alarm. But they simply swam away with the tanks.

Frost is unhappy with the police response to this and other incidents. Despite several 911 calls during the theft, he says he was told no officers could attend the scene. Similarly, he says, he was told no officers could be allocated to patrol the area at night.

Over multiple nights, Frost said around 20 tanks had been stolen from his business.

“The impact is significant. It takes a long time to get new tanks to the island. The business can’t function without them.”

Dive operators have helped each other out by sharing surplus tanks, on top of changing their operations to avoid the thefts.

Another dive operator, based out of the old Atlantis building in George Town, said all of the businesses had left their tanks on their boats for decades with no problem.

“I have been in business for 30 years and I have had my boats out there for all that time and I have never seen anything like this,” he said.

Frustration with the police response was rife among many of the operators that spoke with the Compass.

Jigsaw pieces

Others acknowledged that the jigsaw pieces of seemingly petty thefts may have taken a while to piece together – to create a picture of a much more serious crime.

“We are talking about $25,000 now. If they had robbed that much from a bank, people would be paying attention,” said Charlton-Jones.

He added that, in the last few weeks, amid a handful of additional reports of thefts in the same location, police had been taking statements and questioning dive businesses.

Tom Shropshire, of Off the Wall Divers, said his boat was among the last to be hit. Three tanks were stolen last week. But he said he had also had his kayak taken overnight on a couple of occasions, potentially as a means of transport by the same thieves.

The majority of the thefts appear to have taken place between 2am and 4am, from the fleet of dive boats moored off Lobster Pot, close to George Town Harbour.

Speculation abounds as to where the tanks could be going.

Charlton-Jones said he does not believe another local dive operator would buy them. His tanks are stamped WTW and carry serial numbers.

Others have similar security measures and, despite friendly rivalry for customers, all said they would never consider purchasing secondhand tanks by the back door.

On a previous occasion, he noted, stolen tanks had been traced to Honduras. Another option is the scrap metal trade.

“They have to be going off island,” he said.

Police confirmed a number of reports of thefts from dive businesses.

A spokesperson said thefts that occurred offshore from boats can “prove a challenge from a land patrol perspective”.

She said the Coast Guard and Customs and Border Control had been alerted to the threat.

She added, “In the case of thefts from commercial premises, the police do wish to reinforce to dive shops, as we would any other business, to ensure items are effectively secured so they are not easily accessed by any opportunist thieves that may be operating in the area.”

• This story has been amended to add the police’s response.