The Mysterious Disappearance of Grand Cayman Scuba Tanks

Night after night, swimming or kayaking from boat to boat, thieves have quietly ripped off George Town dive operators of thousands of dollars' worth of scuba tanks. Over several months, more than 50 tanks have been taken from boats in the harbor, apparently between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m.

It's not clear where the tanks are going. Dive operators are convinced there is no significant on-island resale market and speculate they are either being shipped overseas or sold for scrap metal. "They have to be being stolen to order," one operator said. "No one is swimming out every night taking dive tanks without being able to sell them." Businesses have invested in security guards and new locked storage lockers and suffered from a reduced capacity to cater to divers.

The thefts, from dive boats on moorings off the Lobster Pot, began in March. Giles Charlton-Jones of Wall to Wall Diving said, "I think they are swimming because they are taking them two or four at a time." Tom Shropshire of Off the Wall Divers noted that he had his kayak taken overnight on a couple of occasions, potentially as a means of transport by the same thieves.

Living the Dream Divers, one of the worst-hit operators, hired a security guard, put cameras at its shop, and moved the boat to its own dock after numerous raids this year. The thieves came anyway, slipping into the water, out of sight of the cameras. "It was almost like special forces stuff," said business owner Gary Frost. While the thieves were caught in the act by the guard, who raised the alarm, they simply swam away with the tanks.

Over multiple nights, Frost said 20 tanks had been stolen from his business. "The impact is significant. It takes a long time to get new tanks to the island. The business can't function without them."

The operators have been unhappy with the police response. "We're talking about $25,000 now. If they had robbed that much from a bank, people would be paying attention," said Charlton-Jones.

He added that, in the last few weeks, amid a handful of reports of thefts in the same location, police had been taking statements and questioning dive businesses.

Speculation abounds as to where the tanks could be going. Charlton-Jones said he does not believe another local dive operator would buy them. Previously, he noted, stolen tanks had been traced to Honduras. Another option is the scrap metal trade. "They have to be going off island," he said.

- James Whittaker, Cayman Compass