Good Samartians Help Indiana Fisherman Recover Stolen Boat: ‘Still a Lot of Good People Out There’

The world is a better place than Seth Stewart thought after he recovered his stolen boat with the help of friends and strangers on Facebook.

The Southern Indiana man had his Pro-line blue fishing boat stolen from his RV dealership parking lot, as first reported by WHAS 11.

Security footage showed a black Toyota Tundra pull into the parking lot a little past midnight on April 28. The suspect hooked Stewart’s boat to his truck and drove away.

That boat was more than a fishing boat to Stewart because his children grew up on it. Absolutely devastated, Stewart took to Facebook to vent his frustration.

“To the assholes that took my boat last night. You might have my boat, but you can’t take my memories,” Stewart wrote “Somewhere along the way you’ll be judged. That’s not my job. It’s a sad world we live in.”

Within hours, the post garnered hundreds of shares, leading the boat to be recovered 48 hours after being stolen.

On Saturday morning — two days after the boat was stolen — Stewart received a Facebook message from a stranger stating he had spotted the boat hundreds of miles away on the interstate of Bowling Green, Kentucky.

This initial text set things into motion for Stewart. He received a message from two friends who had also spotted the boat, and then another friend called Stewart to tell him his buddy, Eric Kampshaefer, was going to trail it, as reported by Outdoor Life. Stewart and Kampshaefer became fast friends as he kept him updated on the boat’s location.

“He tells me ‘Hey, I’m going to Nashville, so I can stay with this boat for a while.’ And I told him that the police were on the way,” Stewart told WHAS 11.

Stewart took to Facebook on April 29 to share how that friend of a friend — a stranger he had never met in person — pulled over to provide the state trooper the VIN number.

“The trooper then called and said, ‘Your boat has been recovered!” Stewart wrote. “The world is a better place than I thought, and there are still a lot of good people out there that are more than willing to help a stranger.”

All across the country, there are countless Facebook groups dedicated to helping strangers find lost or stolen items and even missing pets.

A Facebook group in Kent County, Washington, has helped locate 10,000 pets, King 5 reported.