A Long Island dude was totally shocked on Wednesday afternoon when he rolled up to his crib and saw that his Sea-Doo personal watercraft was missing. At first, Chris Montalbano thought it was some kind of prank or something.
“I was like, super confused for a sec, like maybe my kid was messing around with me,” the 28-year-old dude from Amityville said.
“It was right here on the trailer,” Montalbano said, pointing to the now-empty spot where his 2022 watercraft used to chill.
But when he checked his home security cameras, he saw some crazy stuff: a silver pickup truck pulled up to his place around 12:30 p.m., a dude hopped out, hooked the jet ski trailer to his ride, and dipped — all in broad daylight.
“I’m pretty shocked, especially during the day,” Montalbano said. “I can’t believe at 12:30 p.m. in the middle of the day they’d be so bold to just roll up and do it.”
To make things worse, two of Montalbano’s security cams — one pointing at the driveway and another near the door — didn’t fully catch the whole thing.
“You see the jet ski and then it skips for three minutes and then you see nothing,” he explained. “That’s weird. I check the Ring at the door, same thing.”
Now he thinks the thief might have messed with his surveillance system.
“If I pull into the driveway, it picks me up. It picks my mailman up. It picks everyone up,” he said. “So how could it miss this?”
Luckily, one security cam did catch enough to show the suspect’s vehicle, and Montalbano hopes someone recognizes the truck or the thief.
“I think they were definitely scoping it out,” he said. “He pulled up with a hitch. The ball on that hitch has to be a certain size.”
This isn’t the first time jet ski thefts have gone down on Long Island. Back in February 2024, there were reports of a bunch of thefts involving a U-Haul truck in nearby Massapequa. Montalbano is worried it could be part of a bigger trend.
His jet ski, valued at 25 grand, was stored in his garage during the off-season. He had recently moved it outside — and even copped a lock for the trailer.
“The crazy thing is, I usually keep it in storage,” he said. “But I had just brought it out because I was gonna take it out this weekend.”
As for what he’d say to the thief? Montalbano chuckled, then shook his head. “I don’t know if I could say on camera what I would say to him.”
If you know anything about the theft, hit up the local authorities.
