Probe continues into Sandy Hook burglaries, boat thefts

The investigation continues into boat thefts and a series of recent burglaries in the Sandy Hook neighborhood near Possession Point south of Clinton, officials said.

The investigation continues into boat thefts and a series of recent burglaries in the Sandy Hook neighborhood near Possession Point south of Clinton, officials said.

Homes were broken into and food stolen, and there were signs of someone living in at least one house of a part-time residence, officials said.

Also, a dinghy was stolen from nearby and rowed to the Sandy Hook marina, where a 27-foot power boat belonging to a neighborhood resident was taken, probably Sunday night.

The boat was found Monday in Kitsap County, where it had been run aground on the beach between Kingston and Hansville on the Kitsap Peninsula.

Deputy Scott Wilson of the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office said it appeared from the interior that the boat had been hot-wired.

Both Wilson and Island County Sheriff’s Det. Ed Wallace said there is still no evidence that the thefts and burglaries were the work of Colton Harris-Moore, 19, the notorious “barefoot burglar” linked for the past two years to boat and car thefts and burglaries throughout Puget Sound.

“It certainly fits his method of operations,” Wilson said. “But we can’t say 100 percent it’s him.”

Wallace said his department wouldn’t tie Harris-Moore to the Sandy Hook incidents “until we get some evidence that it was him. We don’t just make it up.”