Not only did this guy cop a fine (albeit a small one), the judge laughed off his excuse, and his claims that he was terminally ill. 

A few months ago we heard of a heap of kiteboarding gear being stolen from In The Loop's Marvin Baumeister, amongst the stolen items were a few new Ozone Edge kites, Race bars and ransom other gear. The van was stolen too, but it's taken a while to catch the guy out. 

It was actually a seabreeze forum user who pointed out the first of the stolen items to appear on the US Ebay. A Ozone race bar, extremely distinctive and one of only a couple in North QLD, magically appeared in Pallarenda, only a few km's from In The Loop. Coincidence? We think not!! Nor did the cops, and the find lead to the arrest of Callum James Rush, a 25 year old from Townsville. 

So what happened to him? Not much really, the judge laughed off claims that "a mate dropped the stuff off at his house, and never returned". Saying in court:

"You seriously expect me to think that he didn't expect (his friend) had knocked this stuff off and he couldn't get in touch with him?" Mr Mack said in disbelief. "Does he really think the court has that much naivety? A lot of this stuff just doesn't make sense. It's doubtful or unexplained."

He also questioned Mr Rush's story about having some kind of auto-immune disease, but fined him $1200 and warned that next time he might not be walking from the courts as a free man. 

Fitting punishment for the crime? Maybe, maybe not. But what would you think if it was YOUR kiteboarding gear stolen? 

By the way, is your gear insured? Find out - because it might mean the difference between kiting next summer and mooching gear off your mates...

#News #Kitesurfing #Kiteboarding #Ozone #North