91–100 of 170 posts
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…
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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).
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…
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Could be his game. Party looks big enough while walking by, sneak in when it's starting to get a little hazy, grab a little something and stroll out. Or he was just a scummy fuck.
And now he knows where to return to meet the guy that put him in jail.
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Out of curiosity, why does the trunk have a particular legal status?
In America, police only have to show 'reasonable suspicion' rather than probable cause to search a person and his immediate surroundings for weapons - and if they find something else that's illegal while searching for 'weapons', you're out of luck. Since the trunk is out of reach of the driver, it can't be part of this 'reasonable suspicion' search - unlike, say, the glove compartment. For the trunk, police need your…
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When my car was recovered, the responding officer showed no interest in fingerprinting the car, or really investigating at all. We should expect, and be willing to pay for, better from our public services. The cycle of moving mountaineering gear to and from my car solely to prevent theft uses up ~1/2 hr a week of my life, and provides utility to nobody. I won't steal your stuff, even if you leave it in plain view in…
Does the gear fit in your trunk? Or are you an unfortunate soul with a hatchback?
Also if you're putting into your trunk do so before you arrive at your parking destination... many stories about people seeing you hiding stuff and then knowing there's something to steal.
An interesting story, I'm glad it worked for the OP...I had been robbed at gunpoint sometime ago in NYC. The cops helped as much as they could but nothing above and beyond...for example, the fact that whoever had my iPod was now using my Netflix account through it didn't really register much interest (and a Netflix rep claimed to not be able to track the IP that device was using...huh?). I did set up a fake account o…
Manufacturers of expensive portable items really should put some effort into making their products easier to trace (by the legitimate owners), making them less appealing to steal. Car theft used to be a much bigger problem before 1) VINs everywhere and 2) anti-theft systems. The easiest way to steal a high end car now is carjacking (i.e. once all the security systems are dieabled); otherwise, you have to either flatb…
Well, sadly some 1M owner(s) in the UK beg to differ as can be seen on YT here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DshK4ZXPU9o
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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.
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…
Or, if a bike is unlocked in the woods, is it still stealable?
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.