Cash Converters selling my stolen kit on ebay, police informed, should I inform them (CC) too?

peejay

peejay

Suspended / Banned
Messages
9
Name
Paul
Edit My Images
No
As above. I'm 1000% certain that at least some of it (the most expensive part) I can prove is mine with purchase receipts & identifying marks which I have photos of.

However, the auctions are due to end sooner than I suspect Police will be able to action anything so, in the meantime, should I inform the Cash Converters seller that I believe them to be my stolen gear so the auctions are put on hold to allow time for Police to investigate, or is that giving them an opportunity to "anonymise" the gear by going over any markings etc. (I've no idea if CC can be unscrupulous or if they're genuinely equally innocent victims?

I'd ask the Police themselves but I'm awaiting a response to my updated information on the case (originally got crime ref number etc. at time of burglary from car).

Any advice/experience appreciated!

Paul
 
Do you have any proof in the way of serial numbers kept by yourself or shown on exif details?

I would have thought that CC would be the first port of call given they are allegedly receiving and selling stolen goods
 
  • Like
Reactions: MDR
Of course your should. Why on earth would you not?
 
Yup, contact CC straight away, preferably by phone, they're normally pretty sharp on taking down stolen goods. And the police, obviously. :D
 
CC are an up front company. Just contact them asap. Why are you hesitating?

They'll secure the goods, put them on one side pending Police contact and dig out details of who sold the kit to them.
 
Thanks folks, the reason I asked is because I'm not sure if raising it with them would actually be detrimental to my case and, as I mentioned, lead them to take steps to cover themselves.

I also considered bidding on them too but don't want to end up being liable to pay to purchase my own gear back, at least the most expensive stuff.
 
Are they in a store local to you? If so I would go and ask to see them, take pictures for evidence etc.

The same thing happened to some builders we were working with, tools stolen from site but turned up in CC about 7 miles away. The police weren't willing to do any leg work, so they (the builders) ending up doing most of it themselves and presented the information to the police which led to some arrests. Obviously CC weren't giving the information away as to who sold them the tools in the first place but did to the police in the end. We left the job before finding out what happened to them though unfortunately!
 
I've left the guy an ebay message with item info now anyway so will see how it goes. Thanks again for the advice...
 
Surprise surprise I've not received a response from the seller so I ended up bidding for & "winning" my own item this afternoon with a bid >£1k :-/ Local plod finally got back to me this afternoon & said they've requested plod local to the seller to attend & seek a "retain" order, basically stopping them from selling until police investigation clears things up.

I can but hope!

(I did ask local police station whether or not I should have followed up the "that's my stolen gear" email with a phone call as a number is available but they advised not to.)
 
no way should you have to pay to get your stolen gear back!!
At least with the action you have taken it wont get into anybody else's hands.

Let's hope it is sorted with you not being out of pocket.

Out of curiosity, did you make an insurance claim on the gear?? That throws a whole different dimension on who is the correct 'owner' of the items.....
 
Latest update is that the local police (to the ebayer) attended this morning & served a "section 66 PACE" on them for the items which states that they cannot sell/dispose of the kit pending investigation so things are ticking along now.

As for insurance, yes, I do have photography insurance, however I fell foul of the stipulation that the car was only covered during the time of 06:00 - 21:30 whereas the offence occurred (and was reported to Police as such) at 10:30. So a couple of lessons learned there....
 
peejay said:
Latest update is that the local police (to the ebayer) attended this morning & served a "section 66 PACE" on them for the items which states that they cannot sell/dispose of the kit pending investigation so things are ticking along now.

As for insurance, yes, I do have photography insurance, however I fell foul of the stipulation that the car was only covered during the time of 06:00 - 21:30 whereas the offence occurred (and was reported to Police as such) at 10:30. So a couple of lessons learned there....
Click to expand...
I had no idea that insurances had specific times that items were covered in certain locations :eek: Was that with home insurance or a dedicated camera insurance?
 
snerkler said:
I had no idea that insurances had specific times that items were covered in certain locations :eek: Was that with home insurance or a dedicated camera insurance?
Click to expand...

I had a restriction like that on my dedicated camera insurance last year, this year it changed to cover gear in the car any time I am working on location but not if I am parked up for the night or any time I am parked at home.
 
Nit wanting to be pedantic, but I'm assuming you mean the incident was reported at 22.30.

Interesting to note that there are time stipulations applied on policies... Bet a lot of members didn't know that!

Good luck in the recovery!
 
Meeten said:
Interesting to note that there are time stipulations applied on policies... Bet a lot of members didn't know that!
Click to expand...

Doesn't everyone read the small print? :D
:coat:
 
Meeten said:
Nit wanting to be pedantic, but I'm assuming you mean the incident was reported at 22.30.

Good luck in the recovery!
Click to expand...

Unfortunately not. The incident was reported the next day, but the time of occurrence was reported by me as 10:30 (as I saw it taking place at the time).

The eBay seller has now returned contact & seems amenable so far so fingers crossed it should get sorted fairly quickly, well, quickly by Police standards anyway!
 
gramps said:
Doesn't everyone read the small print? :D
:coat:
Click to expand...

There was a funny thing on the radio some time ago about a little stunt they/someone did involving offering people on the street free stuff (something to do with mobile phones) and all they had to do was read and sign the terms and conditions which of course they did... despite the first stipulation being that they must hand over their first born for slaughter in a Satanic ritual. So apparently no one does read the small print. Such is life.

Hope it all gets sorted peejay.
 
peejay said:
I fell foul of the stipulation that the car was only covered during the time of 06:00 - 21:30 whereas the offence occurred (and was reported to Police as such) at 10:30.
Click to expand...
Meeten said:
I'm assuming you mean the incident was reported at 22.30
Click to expand...
peejay said:
Unfortunately not. The time of occurrence was reported by me as 10:30 (as I saw it taking place at the time).
Click to expand...
So the offence occurred during the hours while the car WAS covered by the insurance. I'm failing to see the problem here, and I think I'm not the only one.
 
Last edited:
Meeten said:
Nit wanting to be pedantic, but I'm assuming you mean the incident was reported at 22.30.

Interesting to note that there are time stipulations applied on policies... Bet a lot of members didn't know that!

Good luck in the recovery!
Click to expand...

peejay said:
Unfortunately not. The incident was reported the next day, but the time of occurrence was reported by me as 10:30 (as I saw it taking place at the time).

The eBay seller has now returned contact & seems amenable so far so fingers crossed it should get sorted fairly quickly, well, quickly by Police standards anyway!
Click to expand...

Bobsyeruncle said:
I think by 10:30 he really means 22:30 :)
Click to expand...
That's what we all thought but he says not.
 
I think he means it happened at 22:30 but it was not reported to the police until 10:30 the following day ... maybe he can clarify :)
 
Sounds like everything is being sorted ... but was there a reason you didn't report the advert to eBay? Every sales advert has a "Report" button and one of the reporting options is "Stolen Property".

It's not an alternative to other options discussed but in addition to.
 
Last edited:
Sorry folks, indeed, it happened at 22:30! Duh!
When I researched on eBay what you're supposed to do in such cases, every result I found was eBay saying that the primary thing to do is report to local law enforcement & have them deal with it.
To be honest I suspect some significant losers in the whole thin are potentially the end buyers. I've ready lots of cases where buyers can't get a refund due to impossible PayPal policies whereby PayPal require you to return the item to the seller, get proof of such, then they'll refund. however UK law states that you must NOT return stolen items to the seller, therefore you can't prove to PP that you did, so no refund is made!

Crazy situation!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top