Family's dream sailboat stolen, recovered badly damaged in Sacramento County

A dream comes to fruition and in the blink of an eye, it's gone.

Vassily Ozeruga immigrated to the United States from Ukraine in 1999.  His lifelong dream was to own a sailboat. Finally, last year, he purchased his dream vessel. 

After a full year of restoration, he took off on his first voyage, enjoying the fruits of his labor. But on June 29, his sailboat and his truck were stolen from the front yard of the family's Sacramento home.

Vassily's daughter, Diana, was the first on scene Thursday morning after getting a call from Sacramento police that the boat had been recovered in the middle of Ascot Road in Rio Linda.

Diana's mother is also heartbroken.

"She was sitting there crying and she said, 'Diana, as immigrants, what did we ever do to a group of people who would do such a thing? We never harmed or hurt anyone,' " Diana said.

Surveillance video from a neighbor captured the night the truck and boat were taken. Diana said the suspects picked the lock, hot-wired the vehicle and took off.

"It all happened very quickly," she said. "It was two gentlemen. One had a backpack on, and they were both hooded."

The truck was recovered a day later in the back of an apartment complex in Rio Linda. The catalytic converter was missing. The battery was taken out, and the side of the door was burned off.

The family is now left with a broken dream, a broken boat and an inoperable truck. The suspects are still out there.

Diana said the family is happy to have the boat back, but they are devastated by the damage done. She said their insurance will not cover the damage done to the truck.

They hope that by sharing their story, someone will come forward.