Man Charged in Theft

A young Holbrook man was arraigned in East Hampton Town Justice Court last Thursday on three felony charges in connection with the theft of thousands of dollars worth of fishing rods and reels last year from two Montauk marinas.

Town police arrested Tyler P. DeBono, 18, on March 20, after stopping him for speeding on Montauk Highway. Officers discovered that his probationary driving license had been suspended earlier that month for moving violations, and arrested him on the misdemeanor charge of unlicensed driving. He was at the wheel of his mother’s 2009 Jeep when police pulled him over.

At headquarters in Wainscott he reportedly made a long statement, describing incidents related to an ongoing investigation of the theft of expensive fishing rods and reels. He began by telling police about a Nov. 13 midnight drive he took to Montauk with three friends.

“My friends had never really been to Montauk, so I decided to show them around,” he stated. Driving a rented Chevrolet, he went first to the Lighthouse, then decided to show his friends around Westlake Marina. “I have been there before and it’s a popular spot in Montauk,” he told police.

During his guided tour, he said, he jumped onto a 25-foot boat docked at the marina and grabbed two St. Croix rods with gold Penn spinning reels, as well as a third rod with a Newell reel. “The fishing poles looked really nice, so I took them,” he told police, adding that he threw the rods and reels into the car trunk and drove off. The value of the missing items was placed at over $2,000.

Mr. DeBono is said to have made at least three such trips to Montauk; the  other two happened earlier last year. In July, also at Westlake Marina, he confessed to boarding a Seacraft boat named Beats Workin’ and made off with four Shimano Mojo rods, three Abu Garcia reels, and one Avet reel, plus a pair of binoculars. The value of that alleged haul was placed at $1,560.

On Sept. 13, he allegedly drove his mother’s Jeep, again with friends, to the Montauk Marine Basin, where he took several more rods and reels from a 27-foot Saltfish Center Console boat. The missing equipment in that case was valued at about $1,200. He told police his friends were not involved.

Video footage from the marinas may have helped police identify Mr. DeBono, who said he still had the fishing equipment in his room at his mother’s house. He has switched some of the rods and reels, he said, “but I can still tell which is which.”

He apologized, and said he wanted to make good on the thefts. He was held at headquarters until $500 bail was posted and then given an appearance ticket for last Thursday, when he told Justice Lisa R. Rana that he works as a mate on a boat in Port Jefferson.

His attorney, Brian DeSesa, filed papers with the court disputing the use of the statement he had given to police. “It is my understanding that all the propesty has been returned,” he said yesterday. Mr. DeBono is due back in court June 9.