Chances are slim that someone accused of stealing a powerboat is going to be able to outrun the cops when he’s trailing the 32-foot powerboat, on I-95, in the middle of the afternoon, in Connecticut.
Chances are even worse when the $175,000 vessel flies off the trailer, bounces on the highway and backs up traffic for hours.
That’s how, police said, they caught Patrick Holland, 38, of Hamden, on Interstate 95 Wednesday afternoon.
Holland’s boatload of trouble began when he allegedly made the brazen choice to visit an East Haven boat dealer on Wednesday, hooked up the boat's trailer to his pickup truck and drove off shortly before 2 p.m., police said.
Cops pursued him in a high-speed chase but called it off and were following at a distance when Holland intentionally swerved his truck and the boat flew off the trailer, police said. Regardless of the distance, that gave cops the headway they needed to catch Holland and recover what East Haven police Sgt. Gary DePalma told the New Haven Register is, “like the king of fishing boats.”
Holland was detained in lieu of $100,000 bail. He could not be reached Thursday. It isn't clear if he has a lawyer.
