Police Sting Reunites Athlete With Stolen Boat Spotted on Craigslist

"Reunited and it feels so good."

Facebook friends of Silver Lake resident Giselle Nguyen, 27, saw that status update on Tuesday and knew right away what it meant.

Nguyen's special, lightweight boat designed specifically for kayak polo had been found.

It disappeared off the roof of her car the night of Aug. 14, 2012 when it was parked near Fountain Avenue in Silver Lake.

That was just days before Nguyen was to travel to Europe and the Women's World Championships.

She launched a frantic search to find it, but without luck.

Now, five months later, an auto theft detective from LAPD's Northeast Division recovered it in a sting operation that led to an arrest earlier this week.

A friend of Nguyen's, Francis Roix, had spotted what he thought might be the boat recently on Craigslist.

He passed the info on to Nguyen, who alerted the LAPD.

John Hovanessian, who oversees auto theft specialists at Northeast, said that one of his detectives then set up a meeting through Craigslist to see and purchase the boat.

Once there, he arrested the seller, who was located in Silver Lake, not far from where the boat was taken.

Hovanessian said the thief simply lifted the lightweight boat off the car and walked off with it.

Nguyen, meanwhile, has long replaced the boat.

She took her new one to the World Championships in Europe for Women's Kayak Polo.

Her team did very well and was invited to Brazil next year for more matches.

We wonder which of the boats she'll be bringing with her this time.

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