MIAMI – Police are investigating reports of a possible armed robbery aboard a yacht along the Miami River.
Newsmen captured a heavy police presence and several City of Miami Police cruisers with their lights on parked in the area of Southwest North River Drive and Second Street, near The Wharf Miami, just after 10 p.m., Sunday.
The owner of the yacht said they chartered the vessel earlier in the day, and between 13 and 17 people were on board.
The owner said, the people who they chartered the yacht to had paid, but at some point, when it came time to bring the yacht back to its proper dock, they held up the captain of the boat at gunpoint and demanded their money back.
Thankfully, the boat’s owner said, no one was hurt, adding that another crew member had a cellphone and was able to secretly text for help.
Cellphone video captured police officers with long guns and people with their hands up on board the yacht.
While the yacht is currently docked near The Wharf, the venue had nothing to do with the incident.
Witness Terence Quek described what he saw.
“People are just raising their hands up, so we were kind of wondering what’s going on,” he said. “We didn’t think it was anything big until, like, there’s cop cars coming from the other side as well, so it was kind of like an ambush from both sides, and that’s when we got rushed out, we saw police holding guns, rushing in. It’s a crazy scene, I’m not going to lie, yeah.”
A 7News crew saw police officers going on and off the yacht, as they continue to investigate. At one point, they appeared to take one person into custody, but police have not confirmed this, as they continue to investigate.
