The most interesting part of this story to me - the guy checked the serial number of his camera by uploading a picture taken by that camera to an online tool, which I presume read that out of the EXIF tags. It was useful in this case, but it's still somewhat creepy that every picture some significant subset of people are taking includes personally identifiable information.
How I Busted a Thief Who Tried to Sell My Camera on Craigslist
121–130 of 170 posts
Re: How I Busted a Thief Who Tried to Sell My Camera on Craigslist
#122> My DSLR (...) which I learned photography on
Oh. Nowadays people learn photography using a "D" SLR... That makes me feel so old!
PS: thanks for the info about http://www.stolencamerafinder.com/, very useful (and not something you could have used with a non-D SLR...)
Re: How I Busted a Thief Who Tried to Sell My Camera on Craigslist
#123In 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…
We don't have listserve here. Sounds like a good service. I'm sorry for the pawnshop buyer. Why didn't police follow the thread? I suppose pawnshop owner should have compensate her.
> Why didn't police follow the thread?
Triage. In many places, the police have too many more important crimes on their hands to worry about a stolen bike.
> I suppose pawnshop owner should have compensate her.
Someone is inevitably getting screwed in this situation. It's not clear that the pawnshop owner deserves that any more than the buyer. (There are situations where ve would do, though.) This also depends on her being able to prove she bought it there, but it's likely that wouldn't be difficult.
Re: How I Busted a Thief Who Tried to Sell My Camera on Craigslist
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
But the merchant is still down a TV. Those things aren't free.
Re: How I Busted a Thief Who Tried to Sell My Camera on Craigslist
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Are you in Europe (like me)? Chip and Pin credit cards are common here. But they are not common in USA. It causes no end of problems for American tourists who come here, since their cards don't work in many shops.
Re: How I Busted a Thief Who Tried to Sell My Camera on Craigslist
#126I 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.?
Yes. The content of the computer was not a problem for me, it's the hassle of getting a new one. Don't think my spreadsheets have any value in the underworld.
Re: How I Busted a Thief Who Tried to Sell My Camera on Craigslist
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
We don't have listserve here. Sounds like a good service. I'm sorry for the pawnshop buyer. Why didn't police follow the thread? I suppose pawnshop owner should have compensate her.
> Why didn't police follow the thread? Triage. In many places, the police have too many more important crimes on their hands to worry about a stolen bike. > I suppose pawnshop owner should have compensate her. Someone is inevitably getting screwed in this situation. It's not clear that the pawnshop owner deserves that any more than the buyer. (There are situations where ve would do, though.) This also depends on her…
In the Netherlands, when you buy something of which you know the price is too good to be true (and it is) you are charged with 'handling of stolen goods'. In this case the buyer probably paid a reasonable pawnshop price for the bike.
If the pawnshop did not also offer a reasonable price for the bike then it would have committed a crime.
Re: How I Busted a Thief Who Tried to Sell My Camera on Craigslist
#128Sorry, but this sounds fake.
Downvoted for unconstructive criticism without arguments.
You're right, I was too lazy to type it out. Should have just not posted at all then.
My reasoning was that it sounded too clean. Either it is fake, and just the written for linkbait (there were enough successful similar articles online to justify someone trying that) or the x-th rewrite of a story.
As another reply to my post here pointed out it orriginated on Reddit, so probably the second thing and I was wrong. Sorry.
Re: How I Busted a Thief Who Tried to Sell My Camera on Craigslist
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Where do you live? I keep hearing comments saying we are "required" to enter a pin in the UK, but we're not. If the chip fails you can swipe and sign.
Re: How I Busted a Thief Who Tried to Sell My Camera on Craigslist
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Unfortunately the personal security measures on credit cards are very poor in America - I remember even little things like having a persons picture on bank cards in Belgium was a huge step up compared to the cards here. Even online banking here is pretty bad - so many banks still only allow 4 digit pins (often with "safety measures" in place to restrict your options, like reusing numbers, or disallowing years - thus making the available pin pool significantly smaller), and for online banking the security options are often a joke too, such as low maximum character lengths, not allowing anything but a restricted set of characters and simply converting your password to lowercase.
I don't know if this is to keep things "convenient" to the consumer, but I never feel secure in the way my money is handled.