Slashdot Mirror
Been Robbed Recently? Check Ebay
fistfullast33l writes "A man from Great Neck, Long Island has been arrested on charges of stealing electronic equipment and selling it on Ebay. The police were tipped off when one of his alleged victims was searching for a replacement GPS device and found a perfect match on eBay — almost too perfect. A quick check of the serial number (note to cyber-criminals: don't post those) showed that it was the exact device that had been stolen." From the article: "Police and prosecutors were hesitant to provide details of how they determined all the devices had been stolen, but at least two of the laptops were stamped 'Property of St. John's University.' Detective Ray Cote noted that the GPS devices specifically had the addresses of the legitimate owners programmed in and police were now contacting those victims to eventually return the items."
You'd have to be some kind of moron to actually leave behind this type of marker before selling it. I mean, it's a great idea to check your local auction site and all that, but most thieves aren't going to be moronic enough to leave behind identifying marks. Although I can just imagine the Q&A...
Q: What is the serial number on this device?
A: 17774677883
Q: Would it be possible to view before buying?
A:
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
Well, there's another option; you notify the police, and then go through with the sale, in hopes of getting some information that would let the authorities catch the crook. In the worst case, you've bought back your part, and in the best case you'll get your part, plus restitution, plus you'll have sweet, sweet revenge.
A friend of mine got his cellphone and wallet stolen when his car was burglarized, and by monitoring the numbers that the thief called from it, and then calling up the various numbers and pretending to be different people (which is an amusing social engineering story in itself), got the name and home phone number of the criminal. The police, who weren't very much help otherwise, went out and picked the guy up (he was apparently well known to them). My friend got his phone back, plus restitution for the money in his wallet. If he had just waited for the police to do something, he would have been out a phone and a substantial amount of cash.
Sometimes you just need to do some detective work yourself.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
One of the big, unsolved legal questions of all time. I think everyone has their (legal) take on it.
In my country (Norway) such an item would in most cases not need to be returned, if it was acquired "in good faith". The test of good faith is usually harder to pass the more specialist the item is, as the parties would be more careful and knowledgeable about what they are buying, and the shadier the circumstances (e.g. far below market value or buying it on the street). If there is good faith however, the item is considered lost from the original owner and at most what he will get is full compensation out of what is recovered from the thief.
I believe the exception to that is land and housing..
I can get Microsoft Office for $20. I work for a very large group that uses Microsoft. In return for selling out to Microsoft, all the employees get the offer to buy a licensed copy of Office for $20. Of course, 8 years ago, we were allowed to take the disks to install on our home computer for free. 8 years ago, I had Office on my home computer. Now, OpenOffice, also free.
Our founding fathers removed the guys in charge. Be American. Vote incumbents out.
I think it was Ambrose Bierce who said that the reasons prison populations have so many morons is that morons are so stupid that even a detective can catch them.
It was only after I bid that I noticed the "No pick-up, postage only" clause in the description. It made me wonder why a seller that was apparently less than 10 km away wasn't prepared to let me know what they look like or where they are, yet they wanted my address.
I can think of a few possibilities:
1) Seller cares about his time, and doesn't feel like trying to match schedules with random strangers who may or may not be timely.
2) Seller cares about his safety and privacy, and doesn't want some stranger scoping out his place to rob it.
3) Seller wants to charge $30 for shipping when item costs $20 to ship, netting an extra $10.
4) Seller is afraid that buyer might be a paranoid slashtastic moron, who thinks that every single fucking thing in life is a trap.
I'm not a crook, but there isn't a chance in hell I would agree to in-person pickups.
If he tries something, defend yourself. If I were on a jury, I'd most certainly acquit or vote for a verdict of not guilty by self defense...
I'm all for vigilante justice, but unfortunately, I believe the reality is that in a situation like this, a jury is much more likely to convict because this guy scared or hurt the "poor" burglar. Juries in this country are always filled with losers and morons who side with criminals.
Here in Arizona, one of the most gun-friendly (and weapon-friendly: we can carry switchblades legally) states, we had an incident recently where a retired schoolteacher was hiking in the forest and was attacked by some dogs. He took out his 10mm and fired into the ground, scaring them off, but then the crazy owner ran for him to attack him (apparently ignoring the fact that the guy was armed), so the guy shot him rather than be hurt or killed by the larger and much younger man. During the trial, it came out that the dog-owner was mentally unstable, lived in his car in the woods, had a huge anger management problem, etc., but all that testimony was disallowed. The older man (60+) was convicted and sentenced to 10 years. One interesting point made by the prosecutor was that the guy was using hollow-point "killer" rounds in his 10mm, and also that his gun was a 10mm which is quite powerful. This apparently had the effect of turning many of the stupid jurors' opinions against him. But any moron knows that if you're going to defend yourself, you want hollow-point bullets (after all, that's what police use), and 10mm guns are sometimes used by police as well. Not to mention, the guy was carrying this gun to protect himself from mountain lions and bears which are common in that area, not from crazy dog owners, and with bears and the like, bigger is better. Anyway, my point after all this rambling is that even here in a very pro-gun "red" state, and in one of the smaller towns (not more liberal Tucson or Phoenix), the jury was full of the same "poor criminal" mentality jurors that you'd expect in Massachusetts.
That's correct. Caveat Emptor.
Just then the floating disembodied head of Colonel Sanders started yelling Everything You Know Is Wrong!-Weird Al
A couple of semi-obvious tips on spotting a stolen computer: 1. very careless packaging; 2. personal data intact.
In both cases we contacted police. In one case, apparently little was done by police, despite serial number check immediately revealing that the machine had been recently stolen from a school. In the 2nd case, the stolen laptop - full of personal data, mostly irreplaceable - was the only lead in solving a major house burglary. Laptop returned to owner, thief arrested, eventually had to pay restitution to ebay purchaser. In the second case, the ebay seller's transaction history looked very suspicious. If you have any suspicions - random tips: comb feedback logs in detail; if machine has personal data, contact previous owner (in our case, they confirmed the robbery and were very grateful); Try to get as much identifying detail from seller as possible in case it must be given to police; Don't meet them in person; Get serial numbers and check with police before concluding the sale; contact police and ask for advice.
you had me at #!
In Sweden, up until just recently, you could buy something in "good faith", which matches your description. This is, however, not the case anymore. If you buy stolen goods you will need to return it to the previous owner no matter what, and hope to get your money back from whoever you bought it from.
The Seattle police have better things to do with their time ... like tear-gassing protesters.
It is all about escalation and quality of life. When I was in school somebody spray-painted the outside wall of the school. The next morning the principal delivered a long sermon, and within about 24 hours the pain was sandblasted off - probably at a cost of $10k or more. However, the move was effective - no more sparypainting for as long as I was there. If the paint were left up I'm sure somebody would have added to it within a week. Sure, the paint doesn't cost anything, but it makes th school look like a ghetto and probably would tend to result in the students acting more like they lived in one.
If somebody steals a $250 stereo the police should spend $40k tracking the guy down. Then fine and/or imprison the criminal for the full cost of the investigation - if they're underage put a lean on the parent's house. A town with a theft problem probably has only 10 thieves in it, and if you got rid of them the quality of life would probably skyrocket. A few thieves go a long way, and inspire the next generation to do the same.
And today's thief is tomorrow's mugger or murderer. Throw the book at them before somebody gets killed or hurt.
This whole philosophy is what made Guiliani popular in NYC - he cleaned the place up by spending money on petty crimes, and got rid of many of the big expensive crimes in the process.
Now, the war on drugs is a different story...