Powerboat Racing Hall of Famer Offers $5000 Reward in Party Theft

David Branch, the powerboat racing Hall of Famer, who for 17 years now has brought one of the biggest and wildest parties to the Suncoast Super Boat Grand Prix, is offering a $5,000 for the name of the person who stole trash cans full of cash from the weekend event.

Branch hosted "A Carnival of Crue," a tribute to Motley Crue that was limited to adults 21 and older. He said in an email today that this year's party was designed to benefit the "Joey Gratton Memorial Fund, Humane Society and scholarships for Bradenton police officers."

Party goers put cash in trash cans with slits cut in the lids and those trash cans were eventually moved into a locked pick-up truck parked inside the , 8005 15th St E., said Daivd Bristow, a spokesman for the Manatee County Sheriff's Office. At some point someone broke the truck's window and took most of the cash out of the truck's cab.

It was apparently a rush job, Bristow said, because the thief left some of the cash behind. The person got away with an undisclosed amount of money, but Bristow said it was a lot of money.

Branch said he thought it was well planned out becasue the thieves only had about 15 minutes during a raffle for breast augmentation surgery to steal the money that was in a secured VIP area at the convention center.

"While we were doing the boob raffle it gave someone a 15 minute window to break a window , go over a fence and in," he said in an e-mail. "They then broke out a back locked door and left."

To be eligible for the reward, Branch said someone just needs to email him with the name of the thief. Send the email to dave@muscleracing.com.