When a cargo vessel has been stolen, repo men are the one called in for help

What to do when your vessel is stolen?

What will you do to retrieve a stolen or seized vessel? May be use witch doctors to spook port police officers, ply the guards with booze or trick the night watchmen into leaving their posts.

When using witch doctors comes in, the thought may cross your mind that the vessel must have been delivering sea cargo to Africa when it was stolen or seized.

Call in the repo men

Well, no ordinary person would do all that stuff but Hardberger is no ordinary person. He is among those handfuls of maritime “repo men” who earned a name in handling the toughest of grab-and-dash jobs in foreign quays.

He usually does all this on the behalf of ship owners, insurers or the banks. He uses all those above mentioned methods and anything else to get the job done.

Daring Task

When doing all this, his goal stays the same; getting on board the ship he is paid to retrieve and then race it towards the 12-mile line where the jurisdiction of local authorities ends in the high seas.

When the operators have defaulted on their mortgage, the cargo ship has been stolen or been detained fraudulently by some local officials, Hardberger is called in as a last-resort. He says that each year around the globe, tens of thousands of ships or large boats are stolen.

What Experts say?

Christopher Parry is a maritime security expert who formerly worked with Britain’s Royal Navy, says that the stolen vessels then become part of a global “phantom fleet” which is involved in all sorts of crimes whether they be smuggling drugs and guns in the Caribbean.

Illegal fishing and piracy, human trafficking in Southeast Asia, transporting fighters to North Africa and Middle East or deliver oil and arms to places banned by the authorities.

A difficult job

Recovering these vessels is very difficult as the oceans are very vast and initiating a search operation is way too expensive. Sometimes they are seized by some corrupt or uncooperative officials that leaves owners with no other option but to let the vessel go.

But if the cargo overboard or the ship itself has high value, they hire firms like Hardberger’s Vessel Extractions to find it.