Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2004 07:44:23 -0700 (PDT)
From: Heather McCamey
Subject: Re: [CB] Stolen Goods on Ebay
I can tell you my personal experience of having stolen goods on
Ebay.
My Eb Bundy contra was stolen from my car last July. In
December, my boyfriend found it for sale on Ebay (on Christmas
night). Emails to the buyer for more information were not
returned (the buyer lived in the same area, and we asked if we could
come see the horn). The police had no luck contacting Ebay
authorities (which they said was typical). The police had no luck
trying to locate the seller. The auction was coming to a
close. The police told me there was nothing further they could
do. If I wanted my horn back, I had to purchase it. Based
on the principal of the matter (it was MY horn darnit!), I submitted
the winning bid.
After winning the auction, I received the seller's name and
phone number. Police located his address and visited the home (no
one answered). The police pretty much told me to give up -- they
had to somehow prove this was the individual who took it from my
car. As they told me "there's just not enough evidence -- no D.A.
will touch this case". Finally, I sent the money to get the
horn. (Having bought a replacement horn soon after the theft, I
became what's believed to be the only girl in North Texas to own TWO of
my very own contra clarinets -- BTW, anyone want to buy a fairly decent
Bundy contra?).
Several days later, the police made another visit to the home,
and talked to the seller. He was able to provide proof of
purchase showing he bought the horn at a local pawn shop. The
pawn shop provided the identification of the seller -- a man who is
believed to be homeless, and with no previous record of theft or
possessing stolen property.
I'm still very frustrated with the lack of response on Ebay (and
the police, I know, have bigger crimes to fight). A friend of
mine who works in insurance claims (different company from my own) said
the insurance company would not be interested in pursuing, either.
Long story, thanks for listening. Bottom line: Ebay
is very much CAVEAT EMPTOR!
-Heather
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From: sande
Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2004 11:12:04 EDT
Subject: Re: [CB] Stolen Goods on Ebay
so is the moral of this story "crime pays, and rather
well?"
sande
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From: "Bradley Stevens"
Subject: Re: [CB] Stolen Goods on Ebay
Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2004 10:40:27 -0700
Hi Heather,
When your contra was stolen, did you report the theft to the
police? And were the area pawnshops notified to be on the lookout
for a Bundy EEb contra with your serial numbers? Supposedly, pawnshops
should make some attempt to avoid fencing charges, usually a
declaration of ownership signed with a verified ID. This might
give them some "plausible deniability" to a charge of fencing stolen
merchandise. And at least there is a person you can
contact. eBay is apparently becoming the fence of choice because
there is no person to contact.
In my eBay experience, the vast majority of transactions have
been completed without a hitch, but I have been burned a few
times. A misrepresented 1st edition here, a comically cheap
bootleg there, an item lost in shipment etc.. Small potatoes
mostly. The problem seems to be that eBay is an enormous
automated venture without any human oversight or mediation.
Getting anything more than an automated response email is next to
impossible, and the only time one ever hears of an official eBay
response to an auction is when it's a result of bad publicity from some
guy auctioning a kidney or something. It's too bad this free
marketplace doesn't provide a greater disincentive for the kind of
fraud encouraged by their lax oversight.
I'll bet you have a nice file with your instrument's purchase
receipts and their serial numbers at home now and in your insurance
company's files so nobody else caveats your emptor.
Take care,
Bradley Stevens
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From: Richard Spittel
Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2004 18:11:01 EDT
Subject: Re: [CB] Stolen Goods on Ebay
Several years ago, I saw an instrument on E-bay listed as a
"Jazz Orchestra Saxophone Instrument". Curious, I went to the
page, and discovered it was a Bundy contra-alto clarinet. The
seller was quite explicit in his description and pictures, right down
to describing something that had been etched into the body: "B.C.P.S.
#XXXX". Since the seller was here in Baltimore, I had a strong
suspicion the "B.C.P.S." might stand for "Baltimore City Public
Schools". I called the music office for the school system and
described what I saw on EBay, and was told that their inventory number
matched what was on the instrument. They said that they would
have the school police contact Ebay about the auction. It took
several days, but the auction was cancelled a couple of hours before it
was supposed to be over.
I was told by one of the music people that this wasn't too
surprising for an instrument to appear on Ebay and even more common for
them to appear in local pawn shops. The reason being that in an
urban setting such as Baltimore City, there is such a constant movement
of kids from one school to another, due to family difficulties, bad
housing situations, crime, police activity, witness protection, etc,
etc., it is not uncommon for a kid to leave one school on a friday
afternoon, not knowing that come monday morning, they'll be registering
in a new school across town. And since not all city schools have
music programs (the principal for each school determines how s/he fills
their faculty), oftentimes the receiving school has no idea of what to
do with the instruments the student might have, or the student doesn't
say anything about it, and several moves later, they get tired of
lugging it around, and it ends up in the trash or at a pawn shop.
Many students actually get the idea that the instrument has been given
to them to keep. Or worse, a principal decides that a certain
closet could be better used than for storing old musical instruments,
and has the janitor throw them in the dumpster.
Richard Spittel
Baltimore, MD
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Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2004 15:36:26 -0700
From: "Chuck Guzis"
Subject: Re: [CB] Stolen Goods on Ebay
One more story...
This past May, some vandals broke into the bandroom at one of
the local high schools and stole a number of instruments, some of which
were the personal property of students.
Within a week, they showed up on eBay. EBay cooperated
with the police and all were recovered more or less intact.
Cheers,
Chuck
***End of Contrabass Digest***