Stolen surfboards recovered from Cayucos home after undercover Craigslist sting

Posted: Mar 4, 2010 8:58 PM by Danielle Lerner
Updated: Mar 4, 2010 8:58 PM

A Cayucos man whose surfboard was stolen from his backyard one month ago, was back in the water Thursday thanks to an undercover sting on Craigslist.

San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Deputies arrested 21-year-old Matthew Wolowodiuk Saturday.

They found three surfboards and a kayak at his Cayucos home after one of the victims found his custom board for sale on Craigslist.

Darren Vickerman was waxing his surfboard and hitting the water on his one-of-a-kind board Thursday.

It is something he was not sure would ever happen again when the board was plucked from his yard in Cayucos more than a month ago.

"I was just quiet and didn't even want to think about surfing," said Vickerman. "It just made me really depressed."

About a month later that depression turned to hope, when one of Vickerman's friends found the custom board for sale on Craigslist.

Deputies posed as potential buyers and eventually recovered the board from a house in Pismo Beach.

"There's no other boards like it so there was definitely no mistaking for another board," said Vickerman.

Things don't stop there.

The man in Pismo claims he bought the board from 21-year-old Matthew Wolowodiuk.

When deputies paid his Cayucos home a visit they found three surfboards and a kayak.

Deputies say selling stolen property is just one of many scams circulating on Craigslist.

"If the item doesn't match the price that's an issue, secondly if it's marked with people's names that don't match the names of the people you're buying it from, you know those types of things," said Rob Bryn of the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Department.

Vickerman says he is just happy to have his board back, but he will be thinking twice about where he stores it.

"I'm definitely going to keep it in the garage from now on," said Vickerman.

Deputies say aside from checking the price of an item you can also take items with serial numbers to your local law enforcement agency and they can check if it has been reported stolen.

If you get caught in a Craigslist scam you can report it to local law enforcement, or the fraud center online.