A mystery boat is docked at the Naples city dock. It's been there more than a month, but the boat's owner is nowhere to be found. A 30-foot catamaran in perfect condition is tied up at the dock and has seemingly been abandoned. In fact, clothing and other personal items were even left inside. "It's pretty odd. That boat came in and it has just been sitting, it has been abandoned," said Raymond Aiello, with Captain Ray's.
"It is a valuable vessel, it has no liens against it so why it has been here for a month and a half nobody really knows," said Roger Jacobsen, Naples Harbor Master.Estimated to cost around $50,000, "Latitudes" was tracked from Key West using GPS. It was first noticed at the docks on June 7th. The catamaran is registered to 57-year-old Wayne Ball, who hasn't paid a dime of slip fees.
According to searches by city officials, Ball is originally from Georgia, but has lived and worked in Southwest Florida. That's where the chain of clues ends. "We have totally struck out with trying to find this gentleman. We found no second of kin, we found an address in Georgia that was a P.O. Box but found out his mail hasn't been picked up in well over a month," Jacobsen said.
For more than a month, the city has exhausted their resources looking for the boat's owner. They've checked with police, jails, even local hospitals and have collected a file full of paperwork on him - but still can't track him down. "We're kind of at a loss at this point. The city dock isn't looking at this as a crime, we would just like to know where he is and why is his boat here. We want to make sure the gentleman is OK," Jacobsen said.
City officials say they will continue to look for Ball before they consider taking possession of the boat. They're asking the public to help to pinpoint the owner of Latitudes.
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