Boat set adrift with belongings for revenge, Chester, Ill., police say

Southeast Missourian

A drifting boat found on the Mississippi River by the Cape Girardeau Fire Department was set loose by two people trying to exact revenge, the Chester, Ill., Police Department reported. Cape Girardeau firefighters were asked to help look for the boat around 2:15 a.m. Friday by the U.S. Coast Guard. They found the boat at the Ford Coal Dock, about three miles south of Chester. The boat was loaded with personal belongings but was unoccupied. As part of the investigation, Chester police said they interviewed two people who admitted loading the boat and setting it adrift as an act of revenge. The two, whose names were not released, were arrested and charged with theft, abandonment of a water craft on a public waterway and operation of a watercraft without a title.