Theft ring linked to online forums?

[Ben...]

'61 martin-$2599.00
2 ibanez basses-$1.00

[Vass]

An Update!

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/02/sale_of_stolen_guitar_on_ebay.html

Kids sold them to a flipper, who put them on ebay and then....well, flipped

Cops are playing the guy in Lakewood- He's going to end up getting whacked, too. "Honest officer the 16 year old came in here with those two Gretches. and there's nothing unusual about that!"

I've talked to music store owners about this before. One in particular casually asks "backstory" questions any time someone brings something in...not grilling them, just "Oh, so you play?" and stuff like that. He said he's gotten burned only once, and he wasn't 100% on the girl who sold it to him's story....turns out UPS had left something on her neighbor's porch and she just took it.

He could be an innocent in all of this of course. But these kids knew to come to him, the flipper, to sell the guitars. Hmmmmmm.

Used to call that being a fence . Lakewood can be a little shady.

Vass

[Jayster]

So the thieves came in to a room with 5 males and got away with $7000 worth of gear? If I was in there with a group of friends, I don't think they'd get away with anything unless some sort of gun was displayed.

If these fucking scumbags came into my house you're damn right a gun would be displayed!

[Cygnus X1]

Neutral location for Craigslist sales.
Same with local trader paper type sales.

I don't need strangers casing out my stuff!

[lerxstcat]

Neutral location for Craigslist sales.
Same with local trader paper type sales.

I don't need strangers casing out my stuff!

How do you show them that your amp works and how it sounds at a neutral location? Is Denny's gonna let you plug in and rock out?

[atomic charvel guy]

The one on Sunset will Lerx.

[RacerX]

There are electrical plugs in a lot of public places, Lerx. Keep your eyes peeled next time you're at your local park for example. If you're a member of a church, you can ask permission to set up there maybe. There are solutions...

[lerxstcat]

There are electrical plugs in a lot of public places, Lerx. Keep your eyes peeled next time you're at your local park for example. If you're a member of a church, you can ask permission to set up there maybe. There are solutions...

Yeah, I have noticed that in my travels. I was interested in what Cyg's response was specificaly. That's why I didn't raise the same concern when you said it earlier in the thread.

His specific scenario, selling amps that he builds and that are not a known brand, I wouldn't imagine that someone is going to just pick one up somewhere without trying it out extensively first.

Is the church gonna let you regularly bring people in to crank an amp, maybe for an hour, as a guy runs it through its paces to see what it sounds like? It's not like plugging it in and playing for 5 minutes to see if the controls all work. We're talking about someone who is trying to break into the boutique amp market.

Maybe he can do that at work since he's a supervisor. I actually used to do that in the back room of the plumbing shop where I worked, when I sold stuff through the Recycler. We had an alarm system there that would deter anyone coming back later.

[Cygnus X1]

My amps don't go on Craigslist or the papers.
I did sell a lot of guitars through the trader paper in the past.
I would meet buyers in public.

[javert]

When I lived in a one room apartment in a student neighborhood I had breakins twice in four years, but they never touched my gear. All the took were some CD's, some consumer electronics and stuff like that. My guess is that it's pretty hard to actually sell stuff that can easily be identified and traced. Denmark is pretty small and it would really difficult to put it up for sale without somebody noticing.

[lerxstcat]

My amps don't go on Craigslist or the papers.
I did sell a lot of guitars through the trader paper in the past.
I would meet buyers in public.

So how did they know the electronics worked? Just took your word for it?

[Bert]

Looks like they may have nailed at least some of those asswipes!

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/02/06/ap6017870.html

[guitarsjb]

Yeah, I have noticed that in my travels. I was interested in what Cyg's response was specificaly. That's why I didn't raise the same concern when you said it earlier in the thread.

His specific scenario, selling amps that he builds and that are not a known brand, I wouldn't imagine that someone is going to just pick one up somewhere without trying it out extensively first.

Is the church gonna let you regularly bring people in to crank an amp, maybe for an hour, as a guy runs it through its paces to see what it sounds like? It's not like plugging it in and playing for 5 minutes to see if the controls all work. We're talking about someone who is trying to break into the boutique amp market.

Maybe he can do that at work since he's a supervisor. I actually used to do that in the back room of the plumbing shop where I worked, when I sold stuff through the Recycler. We had an alarm system there that would deter anyone coming back later.

Also, look at a lot of parking lots, especially hotels etc. There are usually outlets on their power poles or on the outside of the building somewhere.