A 30-year-old Gloucester man and
37-year-old Ipswich resident, piloting a small motor boat while flying
the "skull and crossbones" flag of pirate ships of old, allegedly
boarded and tried to rob a sailboat moored in Gloucester's Inner Harbor,
only to be turned back by the boat's occupant and cornered by the U.S.
Coast Guard in, coincidentally, Pirates Cove.
Scott D. Stanton, 30, of 25 Echo Ave.,
Gloucester, and Stephen Jette, 37, of Ipswich, were arrested by
Gloucester police late Thursday night and each arraigned yesterday on a
charge of breaking and entering in Gloucester District Court.
Stanton was also charged with breaking
and entering with the intent to commit a felony, threatening to commit a
crime and intimidating a witness.
According to police, the incident
played out in the East Gloucester coves and Inner Harbor, where sailboat
owner Douglas Campbell of Beverly had taken a transient mooring for his
vessel for the night.
Police said Campbell was awakened when
the two would-be robbers pulled their vessel alongside his, then boarded
the sailboat. But when he confronted the two men, the pair retreated to
the outboard and sped off.
Campbell told authorities that the
motorboat was flying the traditional black-and-white pirate flag of the
"skull and crossbones." The boat was located in Pirates Cove by the
Coast Guard on one of the city's Homeland Security surveillance cameras.
Campbell had called the Coast Guard
after the incident, and the Coast Guard called the Gloucester Police
Department, which sent a pair of officers, Brian J. Aiello and Sgt. Tom
Williams, to go by water with the Coast Guard. Two other officers,
Patrolmen Kevin Mackey and Kevin Muise, also drove to the Smith's Cove
and Pirates Lane area and searched for the vessel used in the reported
robbery attempt, according to the police report.
The small center console outboard boat
used to reach the sailboat was still flying the pirate flag when the
seized boat sat adjacent to the Coast Guard station on Harbor Loop on
Friday afternoon.
Police said the alleged intimidation
charge filed against Stanton stems from a warning issued to Campbell
after he awakened and confronted them on his boat. "We've got a gun and
if you come closer, we'll use it," one of the men said to Stanton,
according to the police report. "If you follow us, we'll come back and
get you." Police, however, did not find a weapon on board the boat when
they searched it.
Stanton, of 25 Echo Ave., Gloucester,
was held due to an outstanding bench warrant for his arrest issued in
Salem for multiple offenses. He is scheduled to be transferred to Salem
District Court on Monday.
The bench warrant against Stanton was
issued for an alleged parole violations, a spokeswoman for the Essex
County District Attorney's Office said yesterday. Stanton had been
charged in September 2010 with felony breaking and entering and
threatening to commit murder, stemming from a case in which he
reportedly kicked in a door at a Beverly home and threatened to murder
the resident; it was not clear Friday whether those charges were
involved in the alleged parole violation.
Jette, charged with breaking and
entering with the intent to commit a felony, was released Friday on
personal recognizance.
Gloucester police said that Campbell
reported nothing had apparently been taken from his sailboat.
http://www.salemnews.com/local/x541065763/Aarrgh-matey-Ipswich-man-arrested-in-pirate-attack
