Ships log entry #3 the purchase

I contacted the gentleman who showed us the boat and agreed to purchase the boat for the asking price of $6900.00.. We met at a ship yard that day which was owned by a marine salvage guy who is well known in the area.  This immediatley looked suspicious, since this salvage guy would bring sunken boats up from the bottom of the ocean and also would buy abandoned boats from the city or county... I now began to investigate the history of the boat by asking the salvage yard owner a ton of questions... the following is the back story on the boat.

In 2009 the boat was sold by a private party to a man in St Petersburg. Two months later, a news story came out about a man who had visitation of his son on weekends. The son lived with his mother in Orlando. Well... the father (owner of the boat) decides that he is going to kidnap his son and sail off to Finland !!!! Yes, across the Atlantic in a 35 ft sailboat.... When the son wasn't returned to the mother as planned, she called the authorities who issued an AMBER ALERT for the missing boy.  The couple who had sold the boat to the father alerted the police that they had sold him this boat 2 months prior and he was in a slip at the St Petersburg municipal marina. When the police went to find the boat, it was gone and the harbor master told them that the father had left with a small boy 2 days prior in the boat.

The Coast Guard was immediately called and began a search of the Gulf of Mexico for the boat. It happened to be a that a strong tropical storm was also in the Gulf making it very dangerous to even be in local waters.
The Coast Guard found the boat with both the father and son aboard about 100 miles into the Gulf. They rescued the two and arrested the father.  The boat was towed back into port where it was impounded by the police.  Since the owner had no money to get the boat out of impound and was in jail, the fees racked up and the boat was eventually signed over to the salvage company owner for monies owed. 
WOW, the boat had a history and now I owned it for a fraction of its value.

I handed over the check for the boat and received a fresh title.... I was now the proud owner of the Columbia.