My refrigerator was warm. The bilge pump had been running on battery for 48 hours and was nearly dead. Nobody saw anything. Nobody knew anything.
The security camera on the dock, the one the HOA was supposed to maintain, had been temporarily offline for firmware updates for 3 weeks. I filed a police report. The Carteret County Sheriff's Deputy who took the report was sympathetic, but candid. Without video, without witnesses, it's a property damage case with no suspect.
I'll file it, but I can't promise much. Vivian sent me a card the following week. A sympathy card. The kind with flowers on the front and a pre-printed message inside that said, "Thinking of you during this difficult time."
She'd handwritten underneath, "So sorry about your freezer troubles. Perhaps a smaller boat would be easier to maintain, V." That card is in my evidence file. It's exhibit 14.
Here's something worth knowing. In North Carolina, intentional interference with another person's property, including disconnecting shore power to a vessel causing spoilage of commercial goods, can constitute criminal damage to property under N.C.G.S. Section 14-160 and tortious interference with a business under civil law. If your boat's shore power has been tampered with, document the damage immediately, photograph the disconnected cables, and file a police report.
The report may not lead to an arrest, but it creates a paper trail that becomes critical if the interference is part of a pattern. The pattern was undeniable. Nine violation notices, six client letters, one regulatory complaint, one slip reassignment attempt, one shore power sabotage. Vivian wasn't managing a community, she was running an eviction campaign, and the target was anyone whose boat, business, or presence didn't serve her personal interests.
After the shore power incident, I stopped reacting and started building. 26 years in the Coast Guard taught me that the difference between a rescue and a recovery is preparation. You don't wait for the storm, you build for it.
First, the cameras. I installed four marine-grade IP cameras on the Sarah Grace on the flybridge, covering the dock and slip, one on the stern covering the transom and shore power connections, and one in the cabin covering the helm and electronics. All recording 24/7 to a cloud-based storage system with cellular backup. No firmware updates, no HOA controlled network.
My cameras, my storage, my evidence.
Second, the documentation. I pulled every financial record available under North Carolina's Planned Community Act, Chapter 47F of the General Statutes. Every HOA in North Carolina is required to make financial records available to homeowners upon written request. I submitted my request on a Tuesday.