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How I Busted a Thief Who Tried to Sell My Camera on Craigslist

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Re: How I Busted a Thief Who Tried to Sell My Camera on Craigslist

#101

Post by moepstar »

xlance wrote: post #39

I have a similiar story. Left my laptop in the car, came back and found the window smashed. Had installed Prey on the laptop, and after jogging around the neighborhood (wearing a suit straight from work) for half an hour I get a e-mail. Location, picture of the guy - everything. I run down to catch a cab, but then I suddenly see a police car. Wave them over, they call up another squad car that was 50 meter away from…

I've also got Prey installed on my MBP, however for it to "properly" work (i.e. for it to be able to log into a wireless network) the laptop needs to be unlocked after it wakes up from sleep, something i still hesitate to do.

So i presume yours was set to just wake up and be ready to be used without password etc.?

Re: How I Busted a Thief Who Tried to Sell My Camera on Craigslist

#102

Post by solnyshok »

wamatt wrote: post #87
ISL wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like Target takes loss prevention as seriously as it does advertising. Impressive.

Curious, but why would Target care too much if the credit card was stolen? My understanding (which could be wrong) was the credit card companies or end users absorb the losses (depending on circumstances).

As former manager of a hypermarket with 170 people team, I need to remind that shop is filming cash registers for many reasons. E.g. to resolve disputes about counting mistakes at the checkout, theft by cashiers, theft by customers.

Re: How I Busted a Thief Who Tried to Sell My Camera on Craigslist

#103

Post by auctiontheory »

cycomachead wrote: post #31
ISL wrote: post #3

Big ups to the folks who created stolencamerafinder.com (looks like one person associated with it is named "Matt"), who gave the author a critical tool.

Yes, it's a great site when it works. My personal camera isn't found despite uploading many images online w/ EXIF data. I recently (two weeks) had my camera bag stolen from my apartment in Berkeley, with a few other things around $9k total and quite a few years to accumulate it. Fortunately, insurance is helping, but the police didn't even take prints in my case. Nevertheless, I'm continually stalking ebay/Craigslist…

That sucks. Where in Berkeley? (Since I was just about to move there.)

Re: How I Busted a Thief Who Tried to Sell My Camera on Craigslist

#104

Post by zerr »

elliottcarlson wrote: post #62

A few years ago, my wife made a mistake and left her purse in her class room as she went out for a smoke break - while it was a pretty poor decision to leave her purse unattended, this was a class of about 10 students that she thought she could trust. As she was driving back home, she realized she didn't have any money for the toll to cross over the bridge - which should not have been the case. Luckily the toll booth…

What about other classmates who didn't tell what they saw? I think they're not quite guilt-free as well, in case they really saw of course.

I didn't quite get for what her mom was arrested ("warrant out for her arrest").

Btw, was your wife able to receive the stolen amount? (And maybe something on top of it, for compensation....)

Re: How I Busted a Thief Who Tried to Sell My Camera on Craigslist

#105

Post by Puer »

curveship wrote: post #80

In two decades of bike commuting, I've had my bicycle stolen three times, and with a lot of effort and a lot of luck I've recovered it all three times. #1: I was 19 and had ridden it to a local swimming hole, stashing it in the woods. That sounds dumb, but this was in a county of only 4,000 residents, so you didn't expect much theft. When I came back, it was gone. How it was recovered: that same day, I went to every…

It's disgusting how people will blatantly steal "every day" items and think nothing of it. I've played soccer for a decade, and I've lost countless soccer balls because people will literally pick up a stray ball and walk away with it. I always make sure to put my contact information on all of my balls with permanent sharpie, but it doesn't matter. I've only had one person call me with my lost ball over the years.

I've never had my bike stolen, but people have "borrowed" my bike before. This has happened a couple of times in various places, but sometimes I'll be in a hurry or on an errand and don't have time to lock (or a place to lock) my bike. I remember a few years back I ran into the library to return a book and just kept my bike parked right outside of the door. I wasn't gone for more then a minute, but when I came back out some guy was riding my bike around like it was nothing. Yelled at him to get off my bike and he ran away.

Bikes aren't the only thing people "borrow" though. Shovels, tools, toys... People have taken them right of my patio and just left with them. I usually find them in the next neighborhood or somewhere in the woods after a few weeks.

Re: How I Busted a Thief Who Tried to Sell My Camera on Craigslist

#106

Post by hp50g »

curveship wrote: post #80

In two decades of bike commuting, I've had my bicycle stolen three times, and with a lot of effort and a lot of luck I've recovered it all three times. #1: I was 19 and had ridden it to a local swimming hole, stashing it in the woods. That sounds dumb, but this was in a county of only 4,000 residents, so you didn't expect much theft. When I came back, it was gone. How it was recovered: that same day, I went to every…

Good stuff. I sold a bike on gumtree in the UK. Inevitably the guy turned up and wanted to take it for a ride around thr car park to get a feel for it. I asked to keep some of his ID just I case he just rode off and he handed over his wallet (which later was found to contain some a4 paper wedged in it). He just rode off and gave me the finger.

Fortunately I was fairly fit and healthy then and I sprinted after the bugger. He tried to change gear and paniced and messed it up and I pushed him off the bike. Scuffle ensued but he managed to get away.

A call to the police resulted in an officer turning up the next day. Description given and the instant result was "oh I know who that was", he wad arrested about an hour later, I was asked to attend the police station to identify a photo of him and that was that - 6 month suspended sentence and community service.

Re: How I Busted a Thief Who Tried to Sell My Camera on Craigslist

#107

Post by elliottcarlson »

zerr wrote: post #104
elliottcarlson wrote: post #62

A few years ago, my wife made a mistake and left her purse in her class room as she went out for a smoke break - while it was a pretty poor decision to leave her purse unattended, this was a class of about 10 students that she thought she could trust. As she was driving back home, she realized she didn't have any money for the toll to cross over the bridge - which should not have been the case. Luckily the toll booth…

What about other classmates who didn't tell what they saw? I think they're not quite guilt-free as well, in case they really saw of course. I didn't quite get for what her mom was arrested ("warrant out for her arrest"). Btw, was your wife able to receive the stolen amount? (And maybe something on top of it, for compensation....)

This all happened around her lunch break - so it is very possible that no one was in the room to see it, or the few people remaining didn't notice it. This girl who stole the card was the one sitting right next to her - so it was pretty easy to lean down unnoticed.

Honestly - I don't know what her moms charges were - all I know is that the detective on the case mentioned that when he followed up with us post the girls arrest.

Luckily there were no successful charges made - the first three attempts were all for PS3s at GameStop, Target and BestBuy - then it seems she went to the grocery store and attempted to buy a small purchase of gum and soda (according to the police, this is to test if the card is working). We did get a payment of the stolen cash which we valued at $10 (it probably was closer to $8, but we weren't certain and we were told to round it to $10 then). No additional compensation though on top of that.

Re: How I Busted a Thief Who Tried to Sell My Camera on Craigslist

#108

Post by kelnos »

ceol wrote: post #98
pigou wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't you double-counting here? On net the merchant only loses the merchandise. The net debit to the merchant's account is zero.

I think they're counting the loss of the merchandise. So a chargeback for a $10,000 TV would be like losing $10,000 plus whatever the cost of the TV was for the store.

But it's not. Getting paid $10k and giving it back is net zero.

Re: How I Busted a Thief Who Tried to Sell My Camera on Craigslist

#109

Post by zerr »

elliottcarlson wrote: post #107
zerr wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about other classmates who didn't tell what they saw? I think they're not quite guilt-free as well, in case they really saw of course. I didn't quite get for what her mom was arrested ("warrant out for her arrest"). Btw, was your wife able to receive the stolen amount? (And maybe something on top of it, for compensation....)

This all happened around her lunch break - so it is very possible that no one was in the room to see it, or the few people remaining didn't notice it. This girl who stole the card was the one sitting right next to her - so it was pretty easy to lean down unnoticed. Honestly - I don't know what her moms charges were - all I know is that the detective on the case mentioned that when he followed up with us post the girl…

Hm, interesting. The place where I live, one is required to enter a PIN code when you buy something in the physical shop. Shops have terminals for that.

Re: How I Busted a Thief Who Tried to Sell My Camera on Craigslist

#110

Post by 1337Coder »

pigou wrote: post #92
1337Coder wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You would think so but no. Visa etc and the banks don't want that kind of trouble. To charge cards you need a special bank account called a merchant account. A condition of this merchant account is that if someone issues a charge-back on their creditcard, if the merchant can't prove that the card owner brought the service/product then the funds are taken directly form their merchant account by the bank and then given…

Aren't you double-counting here? On net the merchant only loses the merchandise. The net debit to the merchant's account is zero.

Oh yes you are correct.

In this case the merchant only loses the cost to the vendor ($7,000). Good catch.

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