SOMERSET COUNTY, Md. - Mark Ridgway says he received a call at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 1 from a Webster's Cove waterman that his boat was floating away from his slip and the refrigerator from its inside was floating in the water.
"I noticed from my boat went in my slip. It was tangled up into the sailboats over here," Mark said while pointing to the other boats in the harbor.
Mark Rigdway walking among the broken glass left on the floor of his family heirloom boat.
Mark brought WBOC onto what remains of his family heirloom boat Friday afternoon to show all of the broken windows, busted equipment, and the spots where stolen electronics once stood. Mark said he doesn't have insurance on the boat and never imagined something like this would happen. He did, though, reflect on the rise of young-adults being out and about in Somerset County at night.
Mark Ridgway looking at the spot where his boat's refrigerator sat before it was thrown into the water.
"I grew up down here. I learned how to swim off of that dock. I’ve been down here my whole life," said Mark. "Everybody usually looks out for everybody down here. But now that the children are out of control down here, everybody just kind of looks the other way."
Slip 57 lays empty where the Ridgway family boat sat for 25 years.
Mark also said that after the cove's previous harbormaster passed away, he wanted to take over the job but found out it wasn't going to be filled.
"The harbormaster rides through here day and night and Somerset County decided that they were going to save money, and they weren't going to hire any more harbormasters to watch over people's stuff down here in this harbor," said Mark. "And this is what happens."
Matt Ridgway, Mark's nephew said this isn't the first time the boat has been broken into, but says he was in disbelief that damage this bad happened and that no one saw it happen.
"The fact that it's been down here for so long and this is a decent area. We all grew up down here, we all swim down here. We've all played down here," said Matt. "We all launch our boats from here, and all of a sudden now somebody is going to come down here and tear up other people's stuff just doesn't feel right."
Mark and Matt Ridgway looking at their vandalized family boat.
Officers with the Maryland Natural Resources Police are investigating this Somerset County vandalism.