Alexa gives her recovered Hobie a hug

A surfer and her board were reunited this week after a keen eye from an employee at Coconut Peet’s in Ocean Beach recognized the stolen board from a flyer.

Two weeks ago, Alexa’s board was stolen from the roof of her car. “After it was stolen, I took flyers to all the local surf shops,” she wrote. “The amazing employees at Coconut Peet's identified my board and are the ones who made the return possible! So happy to have my Hobie back!”

The employee, Joe, told me how he acquired her surfboard:

“I do a lot of buying for Billy, the owner, by visiting various flea markets and swap meets looking for boards to repair, fix, and sell. So on Wednesday [November 1], I decided to check out the swap meet down on Coronado. I saw the board, thought it looked nice and bought it….

“When I got back to the shop, another employee, our floor manager Joel Wasserman, said it looked like a stolen board he saw a flyer for. So he called the number on the flyer and I asked him to ask her if it was also in a white case; he did and she said yes, so I grabbed the cover I had stashed in storage, she confirmed it was hers, and we gave it back to her…. It’s my feeling that the seller of the board at the swap meet was selling in good faith, otherwise I wouldn’t have purchased it.”

Alexa happily came by to pick up her board.

“On her flyer, it said, ‘Reward if found,’” Joe told me. “We said, ‘No, we don’t want to benefit from someone’s loss.’ We’re just happy she got it back.”

Coconut Peet’s has a long record of returning stolen boards.

“Over the years, I’d guess about 20 or so,” Billy, the owner of Coconut Peet’s told me. “We are the only shop — that I know of — that takes proactive measures to help stop the theft of boards. We’ve set up what we call the ‘Coconut Telegraph’ on Facebook, where we’ll send out alerts to other surf shops about which boards have been flagged as stolen.”

The page, titled “Stolen Surfboards Southern California,” offers information about what to do before, and after, your board is stolen: “Safe Guard Your Possessions. We love our Surfboards and taking multiple pictures of your surfboard before it is lost seems counter intuitive. Who plans on being a victim of theft, anyways? In fact, the thought of losing a surfboard is probably the last thing on a surfer's mind. Be vigilant! Documenting Serial #'s, Dimensions, Fin Setups, Tract Pad, Production Information like ‘surfboard made custom for: John Doe’ and pictures of repair spots is a clutch way to prove a board is yours…. Friendly reminder, if you have lost your surfboard, a police report number must be on file with your local agency for anyone to claim or secure your surfboard on your behalf.”