Calling it piracy is cute and generates clicks, but this is just conventional theft that happens to take place on the waterfront rather than farther inland. In my city it's people's trailers and sports vehicles that get stolen.
Piracy traditionally involves a ship-borne attacker that boards another ship. We do have modern-day pirates in Somalia and elsewhere, but this isn't it.
I think that you're right in that to be a pirate, you must commit your crimes on the "high seas".
Consider 18 U.S.C. § 1651:
> Whoever, on the high seas, commits the crime of piracy as defined by the law of nations, and is afterwards brought into or found in the United States, shall be imprisoned for life.
And 18 U.S.C. § 1652:
> Whoever, being a citizen of the United States, commits any murder or robbery, or any act of hostility against the United States, or against any citizen thereof, on the high seas, under color of any commission from any foreign prince, or state, or on pretense of authority from any person, is a pirate, and shall be imprisoned for life.
But the Oakland Estuary is no little lake in Oklahoma. It is part of the Navigable Waters of the United States, and maritime crimes are federal crimes that the US Navy and Coast Guard are authorized to investigate and/or prevent, and can take suspects into custody to be delivered to the nearest federal agent for prosecution in federal court.
Stealing a boat in the Navigable Waters of the United States:
18 U.S. Code § 2280:
> A person who unlawfully and intentionally—
(A) seizes or exercises control over a ship by force or threat thereof or any other form of intimidation; ...
> shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both; and if the death of any person results from conduct prohibited by this paragraph, shall be punished by death or imprisoned for any term of years or for life.
The feds generally leave all this stuff to the local police. But they don't have to. I have a feeling that they'd stay out of these cases unless/until it becomes too big to ignore.
The important thing there is "by force or threat thereof or any other form of intimidation". That implies that the owner of the boat is on board at the time that the boat is hijacked.
The crimes in the article are mostly stealing stuff off of yachts and boats, or occasionally outright stealing the boat, but without owners on board at the time at all.
There probably are federal laws that apply here, but this one doesn't.
I think of piracy as theft of goods in transit but I would bet that legally it is theft of goods in transit in international areas, that is, on the ocean.
when an airplane is hijacked. that would be piracy. steal a truck full of gpus[1]: piracy, break into a train[2]: piracy.
I worked on an inlet on the SF side of the bay for 15 years. There are definitely well-organized homeless populations that steal, repair, and operate boats to stay at arms reach from cops and other homeless.
we had a crew that lived on a highway pylon, used water access to break into industrial yards, steal copper and iron, and sink it for storage until it could be sold.
Piracy traditionally involves a ship-borne attacker that boards another ship. We do have modern-day pirates in Somalia and elsewhere, but this isn't it.