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Yacht California dad, Christopher Maffei, used to escape with abducted kids spotted off coast / Children rescued and father arrested/Dad gives jailhouse interview

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Yacht California dad, Christopher Maffei, used to escape with abducted kids spotted off coast / Children rescued and father arrested/Dad gives jailhouse interview Empty Yacht California dad, Christopher Maffei, used to escape with abducted kids spotted off coast / Children rescued and father arrested/Dad gives jailhouse interview

Post by lisette Fri Sep 07, 2012 10:02 pm

Yacht California dad, Christopher Maffei, used to escape with abducted kids spotted off coast / Children rescued and father arrested/Dad gives jailhouse interview Maffei
Christopher Maffei, left, allegedly kidnapped his young children Devin Maffei, 2, and Brooklynn Maffei, 3.

A California dad who police say kidnapped his young children and whisked them away aboard a stolen yacht has reportedly been spotted off the coast of San Mateo.
A commercial fisherman reported seeing the 40-foot boat allegedly stolen by Christopher Maffei, 43, about 50 miles off the coast around 4 a.m. Friday. Police have been searching for Maffei since Tuesday, when he allegedly kidnapped his daughter Brooklynn, 3, and son Devin, 2, from their mother's home. Police say he drove them in a rental car to Ballena Isle Marina in Alameda, then stole a 40-foot yacht called "Unleashed" and sailed away, the San Mateo County Times reports.
Coast Guard and law enforcement officials have been searching for the yacht earlier, but have not made contact with the vessel, the San Mateo County Times reports.
The Coast Guard is monitoring the boat by air, Bay City News reports.
The boat is reportedly a white Hunter 41 with a blue canvas.
Police said Maffei had previously expressed interest in buying the yacht and sailing to Monterey, Calif., the Daily Journal reports. He had reportedly met with the yacht's owner.
South San Francisco police say the children are considered abducted and there is a warrant for Maffei's arrest.
The kids' mother told ABC7 News she said she was in the process of filing a restraining order when Maffei got into her home and took their children. She said Maffei ran down the street with the kids, jumped into the idling rental car and sped away.
"I'm afraid if they back him into a corner," she told ABC7. "I just don't want him to snap and do something really stupid more than what he's already done, so I'm just really worried for my kids and I just want them to come back home to me safe and unharmed."

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Last edited by lisette on Sat Sep 08, 2012 10:09 am; edited 1 time in total
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Post by Wrapitup Fri Sep 07, 2012 11:20 pm

By IBTIMES STAFF REPORTER: Subscribe to IBTimes's RSS feed
September 7, 2012 4:26 PM EDT

Christopher Maffei, the South San Francisco, Calif., man who allegedly abducted his two young children, has been spotted on a stolen boat with one of the kids by a commercial fisherman 50 miles off a harbor near San Francisco.

Maffei, 43, allegedly abducted his daughter Brooklynn, 3, and son Devin, 2, from their mother's home in South San Francisco Tuesday and then stole a 40-foot sailboat and sailed away, according to a South San Francisco Police Department press release.

A fisherman told police he spotted Maffei and Brooklynn on the boat early Friday morning, the San Mateo County Times reported.

The U.S. Coast Guard and other law-enforcement officials were searching for the boat, but had not made contact with the sailboat as of 11 a.m. PDT (2 p.m. EDT), police told the Times.

Authorities will try to communicate with the man believed to be Maffei once they are able to locate the boat.

"The Coast Guard is trained for that; we will defer to the Coast Guard for tactics on that," South San Francisco Police Sgt. Bruce McPhillips told the paper.

The stolen 44-foot boat, named "Unleashed," may be headed toward Monterey, Calif., or Mexico, according to the police department's press release, which indicated that Maffei "has expressed interest in the past of sailing" to those locations.

Anyone with information on the sailboat, Brooklynn, Devin, or Maffei is urged to call the South San Francisco Police Department at 650-877-8900.

Maffei used a rental car when he allegedly abducted his children, according to police. The vehicle was found abandoned Thursday in the parking lot of the Alameda Marina.

South San Francisco police said their investigation of the abduction uncovered that Maffei, with his children, visited the owner of the boat and asked about purchasing the vessel two weeks before it was stolen.

Authorities said an "extensive air and ground search was conducted" on Thursday, "but the vessel was not located."

Brooklynn was last seen wearing a white, sleeveless dress with blue and green designs, while Devin was last seen wearing a short-sleeve Spongebob Squarepants shirt and a diaper, police said.

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Post by lisette Sat Sep 08, 2012 10:08 am

Two kids recovered after boat chase in San Francisco Bay, Coast Guard says

Published September 08, 2012

A man accused of abducting his two children and stealing a sailboat was arrested after a slow-speed chase along the Central California coast, and the youngsters were rescued, authorities said.
The Coast Guard, FBI and South San Francisco police had been tracking the 40-foot sailboat Unleashed, which was sailed from a harbor in Alameda on Tuesday. Police said earlier that day, Christopher Maffei had removed his 3-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son from their mother's home while she was out.
The children's rescue came hours after the guard spent most of Friday following the boat as it slowly sailed down the coastline. Chief Petty Officer Mike Lutz said a guard airplane followed the boat south to Monterey Bay, where the rescue occurred.
"A Coast Guard cutter approached the vessel and just started talking to them," Coast Guard spokesman Thomas McKenzie said. "He put his hands up and surrendered without incident."
Maffei's daughter Brooklynn and son Devin were examined by medics before a reunion with their mother, McKenzie said.
Maffei is the former boyfriend of the children's mother, Jennifer Hipon. She told reporters that she was at a courthouse filing custody documents on Tuesday when Maffei went to her house and took the children from her elderly mother.
South San Francisco police say that after running off with the children, Maffei drove to the harbor in Alameda and left on the 40-foot sailboat. He sailed the boat out the Golden Gate, and headed down the coast, police said.
A fisherman spotted the sailboat off the San Mateo County coast on Friday, and law enforcement started a slow-speed chase as they tried to intercept the vessel, police said.
McKenzie said the stolen boat was recovered and would be returned to its owner.

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Post by lisette Sat Sep 08, 2012 7:01 pm

Police: Father of abducted South San Francisco tots had little fight left when caught at sea

SAN MATEO -- When hostage negotiators and FBI agents riding on a U.S. Coast Guard boat pulled alongside the stolen 40-foot sailing yacht captained by a man they believed had kidnapped his two children from South San Francisco, they were prepared for a fight.
But Christopher Maffei gave up without one, they said.
Maffei, 42, put his hands on his head and was arrested without incident after a three-day search that ended Friday evening in the waters off the Monterey Peninsula, said South San Francisco Police spokesman Bruce McPhillips.
"He didn't have a whole lot of resistance in him left," McPhillips said Saturday as he recounted details of the rescue.
Authorities say Maffei stole the yacht in Alameda and set sail with the children, ages 2 and 3, without their mother's permission. Coast Guard spokesman Thomas McKenzie said officials spotted the boat, christened "Unleashed," about 10 a.m. Friday and watched it from afar all day. He said they waited to move in because they didn't want to "spook him and send him out to sea."

The 47-foot cutter, with FBI agents and hostage negotiators aboard, followed the stolen vessel for hours, with another Coast Guard boat nearby, before making contact with Maffei just after 8 p.m.
"They deployed a smaller boat, went up alongside the yacht, made contact with him, then provided him with water and a two-way radio," McPhillips said. "At that point he expressed he wanted to give up. They requested to board his boat, did so, rescued the kids and took him into custody without incident.''
The children were taken ashore and examined by EMS workers and deemed to be in good health, McPhillips said.
They were back at home in South San Francisco with their mother Saturday morning.
"Under the circumstances I'm sure they're glad to be off the boat," McPhillip said.
"The boat has been secured at a Coast Guard facility in Monterey and will be processed for evidence," said McPhillips. "After that it will be returned to the owner."

Maffei was being held on $200,000 bail Saturday at Maguire Correctional Facility in Redwood City, said San Mateo County sheriff's spokesman Larry Schumaker. Officers arrested him on suspicion of charges that include kidnapping, violation of a custody decree, willful cruelty to children likely to cause injury or death and using force to take a child away from another person.
The case is under review by the San Mateo County District Attorney's office, and Maffei is set to be arraigned Monday at 1:30 p.m. in Redwood City at the San Mateo Hall of Justice, Schumaker said.
Meanwhile, a restraining order request filed by Maffei's estranged girlfriend, Jennifer Hipon, had a hearing date of Sept. 21. It requests no visitation rights for Maffei for their children, Brooklynn, 3, and Devin, 2.
The document, first obtained by KGO-7, states that Maffei "threatens to take the children from me, and says that he does not need a passport to leave the country with them."
It states Maffei was kicked out of a friend's apartment the day before the children were abducted on Tuesday.
"We told Chris that he needed to get his act together, since he didn't have a job, money, transportation or a place to stay," states the request.
"Christopher cut off all ties with his friends and family," it states. "He quit his job, and got rid of all his assets, and anything tied to the United States."
Maffei had moved to Thailand in 2010, and Hipon feared he might snatch the kids and take them to Wyoming, Switzerland or Thailand.

But Hipon told television reporters that she was "blown away" that Maffei would grab the children and go on the lam.
"It's surreal that he actually did this," she said.
Hipon said he nabbed the kids Tuesday by opening a sliding-glass door and hooking one under each arm before fleeing down the street, with her mother -- who had been watching the kids while Hipon went to Redwood City to file the restraining order -- in pursuit. Jean Hipon, Jennifer's mother, was sent sprawling when Maffei threw a recycling bin at her. Police said Maffei's rented Ford Fusion was later found in the parking lot of a boat harbor at Ballena Bay in Alameda.
Police added that Maffei had been to the harbor just two weeks before -- with the children in tow -- to speak with the owner of "Unleashed" about purchasing a boat.
The boat had not been seen until a commercial fisherman contacted authorities Friday at 4 a.m. to report spotting the vessel, said McPhillips. He said authorities electronically sent a photo of Maffei to the fisherman, who confirmed him as the skipper of the boat he'd spotted. The fisherman told police he also saw Brooklynn on the boat, a white Hunter 41 model with a blue canvas.
Contacted by television crews Friday night, Jean Hipon said she was elated that the children were found safe.
"It's the best news," she said. "When I get my grandchildren home I'm never going to let them go."

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Post by lisette Sun Sep 09, 2012 12:36 pm

Reason for sea jaunt with kids a mystery

Ellen Huet and Rachel Gordon

Updated 9:37 a.m., Sunday, September 9, 2012

Law enforcement officials remained baffled Saturday at the motive behind what they called a father's bizarre abduction of his two young children, sparking a three-day hunt that didn't end until Christopher Maffei was captured in a stolen yacht off the Monterey County coast.

"His rationale is gone to us," said Sgt. Bruce McPhillips, a spokesman for South San Francisco police.

By the time the Coast Guard confronted the 43-year-old Maffei on Friday night and rescued the unharmed siblings from the 41-foot sailing yacht Unleashed, his rationale might have been lost to himself, too.

Maffei had picked a $250,000 boat that under motor tops out around 6 knots - no faster than a jogger - to outsail a search effort that reached as far as the FBI and involved more than 30 people at the showdown that ended peacefully at sea.

"This came out really well," Coast Guard spokesman Thomas McKenzie said Saturday.

The explanation behind the nautical odyssey sits in Maffei's head in a jail cell in Redwood City, where he was booked on suspicion of kidnapping, parental abduction and child endangerment. He's being held in lieu of $200,000 bail.

Meanwhile, Brooklynn Maffei, 3, and her brother, Devin, 2, spent Saturday as any child might: at a cousin's birthday party in Santa Cruz.

Their mother, Maffei's ex-girlfriend Jennifer Hipon, 37, said as she strapped them into their car seats that she wanted the pair to get away for a bit and have some fun after the week's perilous adventure.

But the children seemed none the worse for the experience.

The two children were fast asleep by the time Hipon's car pulled into the driveway of their South San Francisco home around 1 a.m. Saturday, said their aunt, Lina Hipon, 47.

But, as usual, "Brookie" and Devin were up and bouncing around at 6 a.m. and it was, for once, an especially welcome awakening.

"This morning was great," Lina Hipon said. "In the morning the kids can be loud. ... But today, I didn't mind at all."

"Tomorrow might be a different story," joked Jean Hipon, 70, the children's grandmother

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Post by Guest Sun Sep 09, 2012 2:46 pm

:cheering: It is nice when happy endings are posted. Thanks.
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Post by Praying For Faith Sun Sep 09, 2012 3:36 pm

lindamarie wrote: :cheering: It is nice when happy endings are posted. Thanks.

I second that LM!

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Post by lisette Mon Sep 10, 2012 11:54 am

Dad's arraignment Monday in kidnap case

Peter Hartlaub
Sunday, September 9, 2012

Redwood City -- Authorities set a Monday afternoon arraignment for a man suspected of kidnapping his two children, stealing a sailboat and fleeing down the California coast.
Christopher Maffei, 43, remained in the San Mateo County men's jail in Redwood City on Sunday night, held on $200,000 bail. He was booked on two counts apiece of kidnapping, child endangerment and parental abduction. County jail officials said his arraignment is set for 1:30 p.m. on Monday in San Mateo County Superior Court.
Maffei was captured off the Monterey County coast on Friday night, after allegedly grabbing his 3-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son from their maternal grandmother, and stealing a 41-foot sailing yacht from an Alameda harbor. After receiving a tip, Coast Guard officials said two cutters confronted Maffei, and the children were rescued without incident.
The Associated Press reported that Maffei allegedly grabbed the children when their mother was at a Redwood City courthouse, trying to get a temporary restraining order against him.

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Post by lisette Mon Sep 10, 2012 7:51 pm

Dad in Peninsula yacht abduction case alleges kids were 'abused'

REDWOOD CITY -- The father at the center of the Peninsula stolen yacht kidnapping case claimed Monday in court that he abducted his children to protect them from abuse.
But authorities say they have no evidence Christopher Maffei's allegation is true, and they are moving forward with a variety of felony charges against him, including kidnapping
Maffei made the statement during his first court appearance Monday in San Mateo County Superior Court.
"Judge with all due respect, my children have been put right back in the place where they were being abused," Maffei, 43, told San Mateo Superior Court Commissioner Stephanie Garratt. Maffei went on to say it was the very place he'd taken the children from,before Garratt cut him off.
Maffei faces eight felony charges, including kidnapping and child endangerment, for allegedly snatching his young daughter and son from their mother's South San Francisco home Sept. 4. His effort to allegedly spirit the children away on a stolen yacht ended Friday when he surrendered to authorities and turned over the kids, who were unharmed.
The mother of 3-year-old daughter Brooklynn and 2-year-old son Devin couldn't be reached for comment on the abuse allegations. However, Chief Deputy District Attorney Karen Guidotti said the claims are unfounded.
"I have no reason to believe that's true," said Guidotti, who added Maffei is likely laying the foundation for his defense. "I think he is working his case."
Maffei didn't enter a plea to the charges and Garratt ordered him held in lieu of $500,000 bail. He's due back in court Sept. 17.

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Post by raine1953 Wed Sep 12, 2012 10:19 pm

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — A California man accused of kidnapping his two children and taking them on a stolen yacht for three days said Tuesday that he knew he had "gone crazy" but never endangered them.

During a jailhouse interview, Christopher Maffei told the San Francisco Chronicle () that he stole a 41-foot sailing yacht from an Alameda marina on Sept. 4, but as he passed the Golden Gate Bridge, he began to have some doubts about taking his kids without a set destination. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

"I felt I needed to go back," Maffei said. "I knew I'd gone crazy by stealing the boat, but not about taking my kids."

The 43-year-old Maffei is accused of forcibly taking his 3-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son from their grandmother while the children's mother was seeking a restraining order against him.

He surrendered after authorities caught up with him sailing near Monterey and towed him back to shore on Sept 7. Maffei told the newspaper that his children were never in danger while on the boat, stating that they had a grand time.

"They were safe, they were warm," Maffei said.

On Monday, Maffei told a San Mateo County judge that he was trying to protect his kids from an abusive home. He faces numerous charges, including kidnapping, child endangerment and parental abduction.

He has not entered a plea and is due back in court on Sept. 17.

During his jail interview Tuesday, Maffei reiterated he felt that his children were not safe at their mother's home.

"I don't care what happens to me – could you write that down?" Maffei said. "I don't care what happens to me, I care about what happens to my children."

Their mother, Jennifer Hipon, 37, has said Maffei's claims are unfounded and noted that he has never reported his allegations to authorities.

After Maffei ran off with the children, Hipon went to court and was granted a temporary restraining order and a court order with full custody and no visitation rights for Maffei.

A hearing on the restraining order against Maffei is scheduled for Sept. 21.
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Post by lisette Fri Sep 14, 2012 11:05 am

Father Charged With Kidnapping Faced Previous Lawsuits

Christopher Maffei, the man charged with kidnapping his own children from South San Francisco and stealing a yacht last week, has been brought to court several times before, according to San Mateo County Superior Court records.

In June 2009, a Mountain View-based real estate investing and staging company, successfully sued Maffei after "providing home staging for defendant's property." Earlier that year, the San Mateo Daily Journal successfully sued Maffei for not fulfilling payments in an advertising contract.

In October 2009, an oil company successfully sued Prosch & Maffei Builders for non-payment of fuel. In December of 2009, a company that provides rock for builders successfully sued Maffei.

In January 2010, a small loans corporation filed a lawsuit against Maffei for not paying installments for two Bobcat construction vehicles. That case was dismissed.

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Post by lisette Mon Sep 17, 2012 11:13 pm

Father delays pleas to kidnap charges

Ellen Huet
Monday, September 17, 2012

REDWOOD CITY -- The father accused of kidnapping his two toddlers from their South San Francisco home and escaping on a stolen yacht made a second court appearance Monday but did not enter a plea.
Christopher Maffei, 43, again tried to raise objections in court about his children being returned to their mother, Jennifer Hipon, 37, just as he did at his arraignment a week ago.
"My family is still suffering neglect," he said before he was cut off by the judge.
His attorney, Jeff Boyarsky, asked to delay entering pleas until Oct. 4. Maffei remains in San Mateo County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail on charges of kidnapping, child endangerment, parental abduction, possession of stolen goods and residential burglary.

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