These supersized thefts create major sticker shock

From one (very) big boat to hundreds of hidden drug packets, authorities must gather it all.

From one (very) big boat to hundreds of hidden drug packets, authorities must gather it all.

From one (very) big boat to hundreds of hidden drug packets, authorities must gather it all.

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Finding and gathering evidence is not always an easy task for law enforcement — especially when it could weigh tons or cost a fortune. “Officers need to be prepared for recovering these large amounts … They need to be prepared for everything,” said Shamus Smith, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a former NYPD detective.

These three stories feature missing items ranging from the supersized to the synthetic to the slithery.

When authorities get a call about a break-in at a high-end reptile store in Omaha, Nebraska, they find potentially dangerous reptiles worth tens of thousands of dollars scattered across, and even slithering out of, the store. “The first person I would notify is my supervisor, and then I would probably notify the emergency service unit,” Smith said. “Those individuals are equipped with the right tools in order to capture whatever reptile is in their way.”

A Wisconsin community is puzzled when a 12-ton, 45-foot yacht disappears suddenly from a boatyard lot. “Like a vehicle, it probably has a serial number that we could track down if it disappeared,” said Michael Alcazar, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a retired NYPD detective. “Eventually, if they did sell the boat, they'll have to register it and then there'll be, like, some kind of an alarm on it to alert us when the boat pops up.” Plus, when authorities found the boat abandoned not at sea, but in the middle of the road, recovering the 45-foot yacht proved to be no small feat.

When undercover authorities bust a local synthetic marijuana operation at a convenience store, they find hundreds of iridescent, bite-sized packages worth, in total, about $58,000. “Narcotics officers … [t]hey know how to handle it. They know how to categorize, and they know how to package it for arrest evidence,” Smith said. The evidence is hidden everywhere, from the ceiling tiles to underneath a bed behind the register.

Find out more details about these crimes and others in the latest episode of the Very Local original series, Crimes, Cons and Capers, “Huge Hauls,” by downloading the Very Local app for free.

Crimes, Cons and Capers is a fast-paced look at headline-grabbing crimes and far-fetched escapades across the country.

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