Tulsan Wants Jet Ski Thief Caught

By Lori Fullbright, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- A Tulsa business owner wants to know who would be bold enough to steal a jet ski parked right outside the business during the lunch hour on a busy street.  The theft was caught on tape.  Now there is a reward for finding the missing jet ski and for getting the man who took it arrested.

Surveillance video shows the jet ski for sale sitting in front of Dewayne Phillips' Farmers Insurance Office, on East Admiral on July 22nd.  At 12:15 in the afternoon, the driver of a white, Chevy extended cab truck, with a silver toolbox in back, pulls up, hooks the jet ski trailer to his hitch and off he goes.

"They came up, hooked up to it and just took off with it in about 20 seconds," said Dewayne Phillips with Farmers Insurance.

Phillips says it was pretty bold because you can see it out nearly every window.  Clients were coming and going, office workers were there, but none of that stopped the thief who witnesses say was a white guy, in his 30's, with a pot belly and a scruffy beard.

"It's just crazy and I blame it on drugs, that's generally the kind of people who get into doing that kind of stuff," said Dewayne Phillips with Farmers Insurance.

Phillips hopes someone recognizes the truck and will turn in the thief.  He's offering a $500 reward to get the jet ski back and another $500 for the guy's arrest and conviction, but it ticks him off to have it stolen at all.

"It's very frustrating.  That's why we have to have these cameras and everything because it's the third time we've had something happen," said Dewayne Phillips with Farmers Insurance.

Phillips says the thief can't tag the jet ski and OHP Lake Patrol is looking for it, so most likely, the thief will try to sell it for pennies on the dollar.  He hopes anyone being offered it on the cheap will think twice being buying and not think twice about calling police.

Anyone with information about the stolen jet ski or the truck seen in the video should call Crime Stoppers at 596-COPS.