Florida repo company twice seizes wrong boat

A Florida company that claims to be the biggest boat repossession firm in the world has run into trouble for twice seizing the wrong vessel, once with the owners inside.

One night in November, Walter and Joann Dethier were in bed in their 40-foot Magnum sport cruiser at a Key Largo marina when they heard thumps as electric power lines were disconnected from the marina and tossed on deck.

Running out of the cabin, Walter Dethier saw a boat towing them from shore. He jumped onto the dock and, with the help of a neighbor who was a retired police officer, successfully challenged the five repo men, who lacked the proper papers. The boat had no liens on it, and when they called the police, the repo crew ran off.

Two months later, at home in Connecticut, the couple got a call from the marina manager saying their boat was being taken again.

The Dethiers called the Coast Guard, which dispatched a cutter to reclaim the boat. On its return, there was applause from diners at the dockside restaurant, where the Dethiers are well known.

It turns out that National Liquidators, the Fort Lauderdale company that took custody of accused Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff’s yachts, was looking for a boat of the same make, year and model but with a different hull identification number.

The company admits fault, and the Dethiers -- outraged at National Liquidators’ failure to check before seizing the boat and at what they say is $20,000 in damage to the hull and electrical systems -- have retained a lawyer and filed a complaint with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

“They’re totally out of control,” said Walter Dethier, 65, who had been trying to sell the boat for $289,900. “They’re operating as vigilantes. My wife won’t sleep on the boat anymore.”

The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, in the Florida Keys, investigated and advised the arrest of the repo team leader, Jason Barroncini, on charges of criminal mischief. But the state attorney’s office said it should be handled in civil court.

A police report said Det. Jason Madnick asked Barroncini why he and his crew ran away after the first seizure, when the matter could have been sorted out had they waited for the police.

“Barroncini denied running but advised to avoid a confrontation with the owner of the vessel he left, and advised the owner smelled of alcohol,” the report said. “I told Barroncini that there is no crime in consuming alcohol aboard one’s vessel, and asked if the shoe was on the other foot and someone was taking his vessel [without] showing proper documentation would he not be upset?”

J.R. Hipple, the company’s spokesman, said: “It was a terrible mistake. We are most apologetic about it. We were in the wrong.”

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dfleshler@sunsentinel.com