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Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland

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Re: Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland

#11

Post by rdtsc »

> He called police, who got a search warrant

Kind of sad, that I was surprised they did that. It's definitely a local thing. I'd expect the police to shrug, and say it's too bad, just file a report to use for insurance.

I remember people saying "so what if you have tags, police won't do anything and you shouldn't be confronting thieves anyway".

Apple, on the other hand, is also explicit about tags not to be used as an anti-theft device. The word "theft" doesn't appear even once on https://www.apple.com/airtag. It would be interesting if they still released a puff piece as a response: "Oh look, a carpenter `found` his tools in the next state, in a warehouse along with other tools. We don't know how they ended up there, but isn't that great?"

Re: Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland

#12

Post by dylan604 »

papercrane wrote: post #10
INTPenis wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no idea but I remember the Sopranos episode where Christopher's father in law owns a hardware store and sells fenced goods out of it. It's not hard, but the owner can get done for it of course.

That seems like the mostly likely way, at least for the new items stolen from retail. Trying to sell on craiglist/FB marketplace doesn't seem like it would scale. An unscrupulous hardware store owner could mix the stolen goods in with their stock to pad their margins. The tools could also be used as stock for 3rd party seller on Amazon.

The Amazon marketplace seller is what I thought would be the most used route. Selling overseas would require hardware changes with the plugs I would think which would probably not be something they're willing to do. Unless it's common to use adapters or have people make that mode themselves as part of the "but it was cheap"???

Amazon marketplace is one of the best fences of all time.

Re: Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland

#13

Post by roflchoppa »

k2enemy wrote: post #7

That is a huge inventory. How do stolen tools get fenced? Sent abroad? Craigslist and FB marketplace? I've bought some used tools from online classifieds, but it always seems to be a homeowner or business owner selling one or two things.

Probably a mix of online and FB. Our local flea market has stuff tables of tools like this. Some tools are sold for like half the price.

Maybe there is some organization to it, one wear house, multiple people selling.

Re: Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland

#14

Post by brookst »

bhouston wrote: post #3

A good Hollywood caper story would end with this being ultimately engineered by the tool vendors themselves in order to stimulate more demand for their goods.

That would be a good Hollywood ending. Sadly the world has become so credulous that people probably believe nutty conspiracy theories like that today.

When two seconds of thought would make anyone realize that the conspiracy story is insane: professionals working at a company literally paying for criminal acts targeting their own customers, in support of a sales increase they could never get credit for, and which would bankrupt the company overnight if it ever came to light.

But critical thinking seems nearly extinct, and the thrill of having figured it all out seems irresistible.

Re: Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland

#15

Post by dylan604 »

The logistics of this is kind of interesting to me. Even if each of the victims reported them to the police, the value of the items from each theft wouldn't add up to much in the grand scheme of things. Construction equipment might raise more of an eyebrow, but the hand tools would even be noticed. Unless...someone was collecting all of those reports and analyzing them bigData style, o wait, we're talking about the police here.

Of course it was a civilian victim tired of the cops being unable to do anything. I say unable vs unwilling even though I'd also suggest unwilling, but I digress. It's the kind of theft ring that would just not motivate anyone to look at anything. I wouldn't be surprised to see that this has been going on for a really long time. It's kind of genius

Re: Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland

#16

Post by tamimio »

rdtsc wrote: post #11

> He called police, who got a search warrant Kind of sad, that I was surprised they did that. It's definitely a local thing. I'd expect the police to shrug, and say it's too bad, just file a report to use for insurance. I remember people saying "so what if you have tags, police won't do anything and you shouldn't be confronting thieves anyway". Apple, on the other hand, is also explicit about tags not to be used as a…

My guess is the carpenter knows someone that knows someone in the police department that they actually did something, but in a normal situation, definitely they won’t bother.

Re: Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland

#18

Post by doctoboggan »

rdtsc wrote: post #11

> He called police, who got a search warrant Kind of sad, that I was surprised they did that. It's definitely a local thing. I'd expect the police to shrug, and say it's too bad, just file a report to use for insurance. I remember people saying "so what if you have tags, police won't do anything and you shouldn't be confronting thieves anyway". Apple, on the other hand, is also explicit about tags not to be used as a…

I am also surprised they got a warrant based on AirTag data, especially with stories like this:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/08/us/denver-police-raid-wrong-h...

I suspect there has to be more evidence than just the AirTag, but it is possible that the police used that tip to kick off an investigation that ultimately led to the warrant and search. Or they already started building a case. Based off the estimated 15,000 stolen tools, this theft ring was in the millions of dollars and was quite possibly already on their radar.

Re: Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland

#20

Post by ornornor »

papercrane wrote: post #10
INTPenis wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no idea but I remember the Sopranos episode where Christopher's father in law owns a hardware store and sells fenced goods out of it. It's not hard, but the owner can get done for it of course.

That seems like the mostly likely way, at least for the new items stolen from retail. Trying to sell on craiglist/FB marketplace doesn't seem like it would scale. An unscrupulous hardware store owner could mix the stolen goods in with their stock to pad their margins. The tools could also be used as stock for 3rd party seller on Amazon.

Amazon comingled inventory would be the perfect vehicle for the perfect crime. They can’t even tell who shipped what, it’s basically like a cryptocurrency tumbler but for real world goods!
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