Crime Stories

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Crime Stories

Postby bdring » Thu Sep 01, 2011 2:55 am

I have been the victim of a few crimes lately and it has really set me back.

Long story...but worth the read.

First Crime:

I got called by my credit card company about 1-1/2 weeks ago saying that their was suspicious activity on my Buildlog.net credit card. Someone in the UK was going on a spree with my CC number. They intercepted the charges, so no harm done and they would send me a new card. The card took about 6 days to get to me. I use that card to make most of my on-line purchases, so I was on-hold for places like McMaster Carr and even shipping from UPS and USPS. Automatic billing was screwed from my ISP and even a Kickstarted project I sponsored got rejected. That one was annoying and embarrassing. I have some backup plans in place now, but it means a lot of extra accounting. :evil:

Second Crime.

My wife called me at work (the day job) about 10 days ago and said the window was busted out of the shop. I had walked past that window that morning and did not see anything. I got home that night to find that my tool chest, compressor and MIG welder were stolen. The tool chest had a ton of tools like my calipers and gauges, wrenches, etc. I was very depressed and didn't even bother to call the police or insurance. I did not want to re-live the crime and get no results anyway. Every time I reach for a tool I realized another one was in the chest like the staple gun. I did not want to go buy them all back at once so it meant a new trip to the hardware store a couple times a day.

Today my neighbor called and said the police stopped by her house to ask if she had been robbed. She said no, but had heard I had. The detective left his card. I called him. He said he had a guy in custody who may have robbed me.

About two weeks ago a guy broke into a house and started loading all the booty out on the sidewalk to be picked up by his girlfriend in his SUV. The owner caught the guy getting ready to load up the car and he fled. The police caught him right away, but were unable to charge him with a crime because he was not in possession of any stolen items. Everyone new it was him, so the police were pissed off they had to let him go. He also had a warrant for robbery in Minnesota and had done eight stints in jail for robbery before.

A week later they caught the same guy driving around the same car and looking into houses and garages. He was with his girlfriend and they had some drug paraphernalia with them. They questioned them for several hours and the girlfriend caved and told about all the crimes. One of the crimes was my house. She was off by one address so they went to the neighbor first. She even described every item that was stolen. She called the MIG welded a pressure washer??

So great...They got the guy and I get my stuff...right. Not so fast. The guy had already sold everything. Again, they could not charge him with anything without any property evidence. The girlfriend told the police that he had sold the items to a unknown landscaper. She said he had called the landscaper using his cell phone.

The crook did not know the girlfriend had rolled on him yet, so he thought he was going to get off. The police tricked him into letting them look at his phone. They found the landscapers number, called him and scared the crap out of him. He said he still had everything and brought it by the police station. I just got back from identifying all my stuff. I am not sure everything is still in the toolbox, but I am pretty happy. I should get all my stuff back this week. The guy is charged and in jail right now.

Stealing a man's tools is the lowest form of crime. It is like a horse thief of the old west....no lower form of life.
Bart
"If you didn't build it, you will never own it."
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Re: Crime Stories

Postby soehler » Thu Sep 01, 2011 4:15 am

Bart

I also had problem with my cc beeing misused in UK also !

I am happy you got your tools back I could not even imagine loosing mine, every one carry some history and knoledge. I have some made by my grandfather who was a maker specialized in duplicating machine parts, in the beginning of last century when he even built some of his tools

Lucky then (your tools :-) ) that will come back to the owner

Sergio
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Re: Crime Stories

Postby artwood_decor » Thu Sep 01, 2011 3:30 pm

That's too bad what happened to you Bart. I'm really sorry to hear that.
I can't imagine how I would react in that situation.
I think more and more about installing a surveillance & security system.
Don't have much value in my house but what is mine should stay there for when I need it...

Any thoughts about installing a surveillance/security system?
Pros vs Cons
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Re: Crime Stories

Postby bdring » Thu Sep 01, 2011 4:19 pm

A friend has a surveillance system. We got to watch his stuff get stolen. The guy was never found.
Bart
"If you didn't build it, you will never own it."
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Re: Crime Stories

Postby thechoochman528 » Thu Sep 01, 2011 5:56 pm

Man that's really rough! Glad you got everything back.

I had an issue last year with some presumably punk kids that stole a package from me.

I then opted to search and make an opensource means of security:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4018

I set it up when ever I have a package coming and I have another one that watches my garage.
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Re: Crime Stories

Postby Chankster » Thu Sep 01, 2011 7:30 pm

I had my apartment broken into about 2 years ago while I was at work. The main things I had stolen were all electronics and computers. Never saw any of the stuff again but fortunately I did have renters insurance with contents replacement. At least I got to replace a 9 yr old computer at the original purchase price :) along with many other things.
"This is not my sig", it said. - I looked at it suspiciously; Who's sig was it, then?
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Re: Crime Stories

Postby gene » Fri Sep 02, 2011 2:43 pm

I too had my credit card stolen I use for online purchases while buying parts for building the laser. As far as home security, I have a realtime camera system that instantly sends screenshots to my phone when it registers someone. Cameras on both doors and covering the garage/driveway. If someone is robbing me I should be able to get there fast enough to handle it.

Glad to hear you got your tools back. Our shop was broken into last year and a group of meth heads cut and took every piece of copper based wiring he could find along with any of the smaller tools. Police caught them red handed selling the stuff but we got very little of it back. Guys barely spent any time in jail and had a wrap sheet a mile long.
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Re: Crime Stories

Postby andrewblanejr » Mon Oct 03, 2011 7:59 pm

about a year ago the city was tearing up the streets in my neighborhood. a few weeks into it we had 3 cars broken into overnight (just on my street). luckily someone called the cops so we all gave statements. about a week later we got a call that they had caught the guy, he had stolen a car that night too and all of our missing stuff was in the stolen car. took a trip down to the station and got our stuff. pretty easy. i was extremely surprised that they foudn him and the stuff. seems like we got very lucky! oh but i still had to pay for the broken car window myself.
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Re: Crime Stories

Postby lasersafe1 » Thu Oct 20, 2011 12:56 am

Well, I can't suggest you set up you laser to fire out of a secret security side port and nail an intruder. That would just be wrong. Thieves just suck. I once had a break-in when I lived in another house. It was 2am and they kicked in the back door. They knew what they wanted because my wallet was sitting on the kitchen table and my wifes purse was hanging from one of the chairs. They busted in, took the stuff, and ran far away before I could even stir out of bed to shut off the alarm. That was 18 years ago and both my wife and I still have occasional nightmares. The kind of nightmare where you try to yell but can't get it out.
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