"Maybe they robbed the wrong person at the wrong time..."
Logan Dulien needs no introduction here. The Southern California filmmaker behind the ultra-popular Snapt film series has been defining what high-performance surfing looks like for the better part of a decade, grinding tirelessly away. In a Covid-era interview with What Youth, the dusty blonde explained, “I don’t expect a good surf movie to fall in my lap. I’m just trying to not pay attention to the hype, put my head down, and work as hard as I can until the curtain goes up.”
Tenacious.
Well, a ring of dirty bandits had not accounted for Dulien’s Liam Neeson-like drive but learned of it the hard way. David Lee Scales had told me this story, before, how Dulien had been robbed whilst out for a surf right after his mother died and how he fought back. Now his tale appears in the Los Angeles Times for those who dislike podcasts.
In short, Dulien’s mother, from whom he had been estranged, had just died after a battle with Parkinson’s. He was there, in the hospital, when she breathed her last and in order to clear head before funeral planning, he went for a surf at his beloved River Jetties. “That’s my temple,” Dulien told the broadsheet. “That’s my religion. That’s everything for me. That’s my sanity.”
After his rinse, Dulien discovered that someone had nipped his keys from his apartment and stolen his wallet and phone. He texted his number from a friend’s phone and the thief responded that he would return all for $1000 cold hard cash. Dulien agreed but the stinky liar never showed. And that’s when the auteur found out that he had been bilked $150,000.
While this would have broken most men, Dulien simply felt the bile rising, declaring, “Maybe they robbed the wrong person at the wrong time because, hey, I’ve got the surveillance (footage of robber). I have the resources. And I’m pissed off.”
What follows is a must-read-to-believe tale that ends with the crumbling of an organized crime ring that targeted surfers. “It makes sense, they know (surfers) are going into the ocean and a lot of them hide their keys,” Dulien explained. “They’re gone for at least 20 minutes to 3 hours. So at that point it became more personal. Because surfing, look, everyone doesn’t get along but we are still a tribe.”
Asset recovery comes in a variety of options. Sometimes operators attach “bonus task” for advertisement.
I was trying to think he was an alright guy, honestly I was.
But then he had to go and say…”Because surfing, look, everyone doesn’t get along but we are still a tribe”…and ruin it all.
On top of that DHMF says he’s wearing a Tenore shirt, (haven’t looked and never fuckin’ will) so now I’m firmly in the robbers corner.
“Way it goes Ricky, way it goes” (as Ricky’s dad Ray was so fond of saying).
Way it fuckin’ goes…
The fact the name wet bandits was already taken is the real robbery here
Had a few big night on the piss with Chucky. Fun guy but we shouldn’t have burnt all the surfboards.
Well, some of us people def do need an introduction but kindly accept my decline.
Dude is wearing a Tenore shirt. Sympathy can only go so far.
It was brave of him to Tenore the danger and take them down.
What’s wrong with Tenore? As far as surfing brands go, they’re fine; aren’t they?
Paywalled link
Someone do us a solid and paste it here?
It was free when i clicked! Either way here goes
Logan Dulien had been taking care of his mom for about a year and a half by the time she died of Parkinson’s disease last summer. It was a complicated arrangement for him, partly because her struggle with alcohol and substance abuse throughout his childhood had strained their relationship. They had previously been estranged for 20 years and she was living in a care facility when he received disturbing news.
“I got a call from Hoag Hospital saying that my mom had just been rescued by elderly protective services and the Santa Ana Police Department for elder abuse,” he told the Daily Pilot Thursday. “[The operators of the facility] had basically cut off all her hair. She had a broken hip, broken shoulder. They apparently washed her in bleach. It looked like she had just been liberated from Auschwitz.”
Bearing witness to his mom’s gradual decline after they reunited weighed on Dulien. He was in the hospital with her when she died, and was caught in a spiral of emotions in the days that followed.
He needed to clear his head before he started planning her final arrangements. So he decided to surf for just 20 minutes at Santa Ana River Jetties before going to a mortuary on Aug. 12.
“That’s my temple,” Dulien, creator of the surfing film series Snapt, said. “That’s my religion. That’s everything for me. That’s my sanity.”
But when he got back from his saltwater therapy session, he discovered that someone had taken his keys from his beachside apartment and used them to steal his wallet and phone from his car. When Dulien used a relative’s phone to text the one that was stolen, the person who replied offered to return his property in exchange for $1,000 cash.
Dulien agreed and enlisted several friends from the surfing community to watch his back at a meeting point chosen by the thief, but the person with his phone never showed up. Sensing he might have lost more than he first thought, he went to a bank to check his accounts and discovered they had been tapped to purchase around $150,000 in watches and other luxury merchandise.
Dulien felt as if he had been toyed with for hours when he was supposed to have been arranging to lay his mother to rest. For just a moment, defeat washed over him. Then anger and an unrelenting desire to find those who had wronged him followed.
“Maybe they robbed the wrong person at the wrong time,” Dulien said. “Because, hey, I’ve got the surveillance. I have the resources. And I’m pissed off.”
The filmmaker shared multiple security camera stills of the person who took his keys from his apartment and shared his story with thousands of followers on social media. Almost immediately, dozens of others began reaching out to say they had been victimized in practically identical crimes.
Connections in his circle shared additional footage of thieves using Dulien’s cards to make purchases. Later, a Costa Mesa Police detective told Dulien the person caught on surveillance was named Daniel Castillo. He had previously been arrested for similar thefts, and was allegedly part of an organized crime ring targeting surfers up and down the coast, according to a federal indictment.
“It makes sense, they know they’re going into the ocean and a lot of them hide their keys,” Dulien said. “They’re gone for at least 20 minutes to three hours. So at that point it became more personal. Because surfing, look, everyone doesn’t get along. but we are still a tribe. If you see someone drowning, whether you’re on good terms or not, you’re gonna save them.”
Castillo was reportedly taking orders from the theft ring’s alleged mastermind, who was able to bypass facial recognition software in order to break into victims’ phones and access their banking accounts. That person was identified in court documents as Moundir Kamil, a Moroccan national who had previously been convicted of bank robbery and served time in prison in California.
Dulien handed over every lead and piece of evidence he found to Newport Beach police officer Kyle Bean, and over several months they built a rock solid case. In the meantime, break-ins remained rampant near River Jetties.
“I remember there were eight in one week,” Dulien said.
A huge break in the case happened last month, shortly after a neighbor installed surveillance cameras on their property. Those showed thieves breaking into vehicles, handing off stolen goods and, crucially, the license plate of one of their vehicles.
That ultimately led to the arrest and additional allegations filed against Castillo, Kamil and a third defendant accused of using stolen cards to make purchases, Jennifer Pruneda. Investigators estimate the three allegedly took over $900,000 from their victims, according to court documents. All three suspects are currently awaiting trial in federal court.
Dulien said he feels proud knowing his tenacity may have helped bring crooks preying on his tribe to justice, but doesn’t consider himself a hero. He described himself as a person who looks forward to confronting problems on his own terms.
His took on his personal investigation into the identity theft ring while simultaneously working on the fifth installment of his surfing film series and arranging his mothers cremation. Dulien said he thrives in “chaos,” and having tackling multiple challenges at once allowed him to productively channel his energy during a tumultuous point in his life.
“The more I get written off, the more I feed off of that energy,” Dulien said.
Umm it sounds like the detective did all the work. Also, I hope those guys don’t retaliate against Dulien when they get out of prison. Never witness anything