A man from Williams Lake was arrested Thursday afternoon after he attempted to steal a 100-passenger replica paddlewheeler boat based in New Westminster.
“It was kind of spectacular,” said Mark MacKenzie, an engineer and captain with Paddlewheeler Riverboat Tours, of the incident.
The large vessel, built in 1988, is a replica of boats that travelled up and down the river between 1863 and 1921. It was moored in Queensborough across from Fraser River Pile and Dredge after a rogue log broke off a boom last weekend knocking the paddlewheeler’s dock off its piles. On March 2, while the M.V. Native was tied up, someone swam out to the boat armed with a steel scaffold brace and forced his way onto the ship, according to MacKenzie.
“He smashed the starboard wheelhouse window to get into the door there and basically made himself a nest up in the wheelhouse,” MacKenzie told the Record.
Around 2 p.m., a crew with Fraser River Pile and Dredge were out checking one of their barges when they spotted the man in the wheelhouse. They called back to their office on the shore to find out if anyone was supposed to be there. The office staff said, ‘No,’ so they sent over a crew to investigate, MacKenzie said.
“And this guy apparently started throwing flares at them and then threw a bottle of tequila at them. So they immediately called New Westminster police,” he said.
The police department’s marine unit was dispatched, while the suspect tried to start the engines. Fortunately he wasn’t able to activate the control system to take off, MacKenzie said.
“If he was a little smarter he could have done some serious damage,” MacKenzie added.
The suspect, 39-year-old Brendan Roger Fediuk, was arrested at the scene. He is charged with one count of break and enter of a vessel; carrying or possessing a marine flare for a dangerous purpose; and attempted theft of a motor vessel, according to a press release.
MacKenzie figures Fediuk was planning on staying on the vessel for some time. Police even found the man’s wet clothes hanging to dry below deck, he said.
This isn’t the first time the ship has been broken into, but it is the first time someone has tried to commandeer it, MacKenzie said.
The M.V. Native is expected to be up and running again by next week.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact the police department at 604-525-5411.
