Just when you think all of the strange stories come from NASCAR, this particular piece comes from powerboat racing, of all things. Andrew Biddle and his business partner Tracy Blumenstien had a good thing going. Biddle was a top-ranked P1 Superstock offshore powerboat racer who ran a boat sponsored by Livorsi Marine and Team Pro Boat, and together with Blumenstien ran Professional Boat Sales out of Egg Harbor, New Jersey. Not a bad deal to have, right? Fast-forward to the night of July 20th, 2014: a pontoon boat hits a buoy and crashes into a jetty near Longport, New Jersey. One man swims around the wreckage for a few minutes crying out, “Andy!” before swimming to shore to call police and tell them that his powerboat-racing friend managed to somehow go missing in the water. The police and Coast Guard searched for two weeks for Biddle before a flyer that was not supposed to be public knowledge was leaked, indicating that the police force believed that Biddle was alive and on the run from some legal troubles.

The indictment sheet reads like a bad nightmare:

•Second degree theft by deception, for allegedly unlawfully and purposely obtaining by deception the properties, worth $75,000, of multiple victims in order to deprive the owners of their property;
•Second degree Conspiracy, for allegedly conspiring with each other to commit theft by deception, in excess of $75,000, from multiple victims;
•Two counts of passing bad checks—third degree crimes—for allegedly passing checks, knowing that the drawee would not honor them, one in the amount of $17,000, the other in the amount of $33,811.09;
•Six counts of theft by deception—third degree crimes—by allegedly purposely obtaining money or property from the victims by creating or reinforcing the impression that they would sell victims’ boats, or sell boats to victims. They allegedly said they would do this through their business, Professional Boat Sales LLC. However, they then allegedly failed to either turn over the proceeds of the sale or provide the purchased item;
•Five counts of theft by illegal retention—third degree crimes—by allegedly obtaining victims’ properties by agreeing to make specified payment or other disposition. They then allegedly dealt with the property as their own, failing to make the required payment,
•Third degree theft by unlawful taking, by allegedly taking the property of a victim in order to deprive that owner of the property; and
•Fourth degree deceptive business practices, by allegedly creating or reinforcing the false impression that Professional Boat Sales LLC was licensed to sell boats for the purpose of obtaining property or credit.

Both men are free on bail pending trial. As to why Biddle returned to the land of the living after spending time “wherever he was, when he probably could have stayed there ad infinitum” per his attorney, nobody is certain.

(Sources: shorenewstoday.com, cbsnews.com