The biggest crime in Oceanside (not really)

It was the most dastardly caper in Oceanside history.

Two men, under the dark of night, snuck onto an air base. They were most likely curling their slick Snidely Whiplash mustaches and giggling maniacally the entire time. With their black capes wrapped tightly around their bodies, they climbed into the cockpit of an airplane. They started it up and taxied it down the runway.

Before the guards had a chance to react, the two were airborne. They laughed and shouted things at the guards (most likely insulting their mothers) as they flew away.

Well, that’s not exactly how it happened. Actually, that’s not how it happened at all (that’s the Hollywood version). During my searches through historical archives, I came across a story from the New York Times from May 24, 1921. The headline was “Army Plane Stolen on Mitchel Field.”

Mitchel Field now houses a large, county-owned athletic complex. But 90 years ago, it was an Army air field. The used the space to store, of all things,

airplanes.

The story is about how two Ocean Side men (it was two words back then) were arrested for stealing a new military airplane, “an article hitherto considered safe from the depredations of thieves by virtue of its limited disposal value.”

The theft was first called in to Nassau County Detective Ferdinand Miller. According to the article, Miller first thought it was a joke.

“Nassau County had had its share of automobile thefts, but who would go to the trouble of stealing a flying machine?” the article reads (the “flying machine” is my favorite part). “Miller mentally put the airplane in the class with the white elephant, as he reflected over the report.”

But an Army official convinced Miller that the plane was actually stolen by explaining to him that it wasn’t in the hanger where it belonged. Miller started driving all over the county looking for the plane while pilots took to the skies. It was eventually found a mile and a half from Mitchel Field, stuck in the mud. The plane was in tact and functional.

Miller theorized that the thieves, whomever they may be, would be back at some point to pilfer parts from the plane, so he set a trap. Miller had the engine partly dismantled so that it wouldn’t work and then posted Army guards to stand watch.

Early in the morning, two men came to the plane. But they spotted the guards before they could be arrested and took off. The guards, however, got a good look at the men.

William Dounalaro and Stephen Obutarana were arrested and charged with stealing the plane. The two were civilian aviators from Oceanside — I’m sorry, Ocean Side. They admitted to stealing the plane because they needed engine parts for repairs.

The article explains how the duo pulled off their dastardly deed. They told authorities that they walked into the hanger when no one was there, wheeled the plane out and taxied it away. To put it more succinctly, they walked in and drove it away (until it got stuck in the mud, that is).

So let this be a lesson for everyone: never leave your flying machines unattended — whether they be airplanes, jetpacks, zeppelins or whirlygigs.