Logan “Chucky” Dulien needed to clear his head and went to the place that always made him feel better when life is at a low – the ocean.
The Newport Beach surfer’s mother had just died, and Dulien said he knew he needed some salt-water therapy before going to the morgue. It was his safe place, where he always went when life got hard, the place that had kept him afloat so many times before.
But while he was catching waves at the surf spot where the Santa Ana River meets the sea on the north end of Newport Beach, a crime was unfolding that would turn his life upside down, every dollar he had siphoned from his bank account, his ID and phone also stolen, he said.
Dulien didn’t know he was being watched while in the water. A person on the sand waited until he was paddling for waves, he said, then called a partner who would find the surfer’s car keys, tucked in the wheel well of his car, a common — but risky — practice among surfers.
He also didn’t know he was the target of an alleged crime ring of high-level hackers hitting surfers across Southern California, stealing their belongings while they were in the water and accessing their accounts within hours, making purchases and wiping out life savings.
“Things either can make you, or they can break you,” said Dulien, a well-known filmmaker whose surf community connections would help break the case on the elaborate crime ring that robbed unsuspecting surfers.
Dulien grew up in the sun-soaked coastal town of Newport Beach, his dad raising him and his five siblings. He would get his first job in the surf world at Frog House surf shop at age 14 sweeping up the parking lot.
With little parental supervision, his house would become the party pad for up-and-coming wave riders traveling to Southern California for competitions. He’d become the driver picking them up from the airport, their host while in town, his Rolodex filing up with contacts in the surf world.
A short stint in Australia for a job also helped him connect with then-rising stars who would later join the ranks of the elite World Tour.
At the time, the early 2000s, Dulien was inspired by a surf film following young, talented surfers and he set out to do his own films with the rising stars who had become friends.
His first of what would become a series was dubbed “Snapt,” released in 2001, all was going well. He was hosting events and living the rock star, surfer lifestyle – until he got sucked into the fast life.
Dulien went in and out of rehabs, but nothing was working, he said. It was TK Brimer, his former boss from the Frog House surf shop, who looked at him one day and said: “You’re going to have to take that bad addiction and treat it with a good addiction.”
“At that point, the only thing I could think of left was surfing,” Dulien said. “So I got back into surfing. I got off oxycontin through surfing.”
Dulien got back into filmmaking, releasing a run of “Snapt” films, tapping those contacts he made as a younger man.
“It was an uphill battle,” he said. “I was going to prove to people I was going to stay off that stuff and prove to them I could come back.”
The tide was turning in his life. Dulien said he was well into making “Snapt5” and was making decent money that he had tucked away in the bank, when he got word that his mom was dying about a year and a half ago.
She had dementia, and despite having little contact with her through the years, Dulien stepped in to help with her care, he said.
So when she died in August, Dulien needed to get in the water to wash away the pain, he said. But he didn’t know he was being watched on the sand, hackers waiting for him to be distracted by the waves.
Wearing his salt-water-drenched wetsuit, Dulien couldn’t find his keys when he got back to his car.
Meanwhile, in just a matter of hours, the thieves gained access to his bank through his phone, he said, and wiped out his savings, an estimated $150,000. They bought expensive Chanel bags with his credit cards. When the fraud centers called his phone to verify his purchase, the thieves simply approved the purchases.
Without an ID, he couldn’t get access to his accounts. Without money, he couldn’t cremate his mother’s body.
“I’m pretty broken at that point,” he said. “And also pretty pissed.”
What the thieves didn’t know was he lived right next to where his car was parked, and he had a surveillance camera that got footage of the thieves. He sent the video to police, but also decided to post it online to warn other surfers so they wouldn’t fall victim to the same scheme.
A successful surf filmmaker, he had amassed a huge social media following.
His message box started blowing up with others from up and down the coast who had their stuff stolen while surfing, bank accounts drained within hours.
It seemed there was an elaborate crime ring targeting surfers, similar stories flooding in from Malibu, South Bay, Huntington Beach and Newport Beach, with millions of dollars potentially stolen through the years.
Online surf publication Stab ran a story on the thieves targeting surfers and Dulien’s warning, putting an even bigger spotlight on the case.
“The whole community reached out and started coming together, everybody started reposting it,” Dulien said.
A neighbor set up more surveillance cameras specifically to try and catch footage of the thieves — and police got a break when footage showed a license plate as a car was broken into, Dulien said.
The Newport Beach Police Department made an arrest in that case in late December, records show. Three people were arrested in connection with Dulien’s case.
According to Orange County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson Kimberly Edds, there are criminal complaints for four cases that have been filed by the office in alleged crime rings targeting surfers involving 11 different victims, with a total estimated loss of about $300,000.
Federal court documents include alleged bank fraud and identity theft crimes in 2021 and 2022 stemming from cars broken into in Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Topanga, Manhattan Beach and San Diego.
Dulien’s case has generated international attention. A producer at CNN, who also happens to be a surfer, heard about the crimes and last week a segment aired on the station.
“The surf community is one tribe,” Nick Watt says in the segment. “Everyone doesn’t get along, but if someone is drowning, they will do everything they can to help them. And vice versa. I feel very happy to know these guys aren’t going to do this to anyone else, especially other surfers.”
While waiting for the trial to start, Dulien said he is getting his life back on track, again, refocusing his energy on his latest film, “Snapt 5,” expected to be released during the US Open of Surfing in late July at an event at Sealegs on the Beach in Huntington Beach.
And of course, he’s taking time for himself to surf — but now with his car key safely tucked away in his wetsuit.