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Im not sure what all is in the boxes. Det Curtis said he would talk to me tomorrow. Ill post an update after we talk. Thanks WarOne and MM for helping with all this. I dont know if they cought him or just kicked in his door... we will find out tomorrow

Sounds like they confiscated the stuff from him: without actually knowing, I can tell that from a retail perspective, a cop will force a thief to return low value items without arresting.

For those of us who sent him money via paypal, do you have a police report # that we can reference when we ask Paypal to refund our money? BTW, Kudos to everyone. It was amazing to see how fast we went from bad transaction report to doors being kicked in (figuratively, or hopefully literally).

i thought I remembered that someone said they're about an hour away from him and almost met him somewhere for a trade that didn't happen... but a quick scan over the last 4 pages shows me nothing.
Granted, I might've missed it.

So, here's the question; Does anyone live reasonably close to him?

I'm certain that the people who were scammed would be glad to put up some gas money for you, if you'd volunteer to drive to Norwich and help the good Detective sort through the boxes. To him, I'm certain it all looks the same but, to someone who's involved in the hobby, it wouldn't be more than a matter of a couple hours, probably, to sort through 4 boxes of models and bits.

Just a thought.

Eric

Also, for those of us who sent items and never got our side of the trade(ie I sent my models and didn't get any in return). I assume someone will contact those who lost items and request a detailed list of items lost, then see if any are in the "bin"?

 MagickalMemories wrote:
i thought I remembered that someone said they're about an hour away from him and almost met him somewhere for a trade that didn't happen... but a quick scan over the last 4 pages shows me nothing.
Granted, I might've missed it.

So, here's the question; Does anyone live reasonably close to him?

I'm certain that the people who were scammed would be glad to put up some gas money for you, if you'd volunteer to drive to Norwich and help the good Detective sort through the boxes. To him, I'm certain it all looks the same but, to someone who's involved in the hobby, it wouldn't be more than a matter of a couple hours, probably, to sort through 4 boxes of models and bits.

Just a thought.

Eric

I can hop a ferry and get there in an hour.

I'd be willing to chip in some funds.

As would I.....

My earliest day off is tomorrow. Can we see up a meeting for the afternoon to collect the items? Currently at work so won't be seein much of me until later tonight.

Warone,

According to the email that was posted from Det. Curtis a few posts ago, it looks like the Detective is still deciding how to proceed. I can assure you that if he pursues charges, our items become evidence until such time as the case is adjudicated (whether by trial or plea bargain). At that time the items would be released back to the rightful owners. It is also likely that any items released to you on behalf of someone else will need to have a release signed and submitted to the Police Dept beforehand. They simply are not going to hand you a bunch of property that belongs to other victims. I would say lets wait and see the conversation that occurs tomorrow between the Detective and scud1703, to see if he is going to pursue formal charges. However, what may assist the detective is if you were able to head over there, and based on what each dakka member submitted as trade info, seperate the items into lots by each individual victim. This will allow him to easily release the items at the conclusion, will make it easier to enter into evidence (in the event of a felony trial), and if he is crafty, he could charge him with multiple counts, using each "lot" as a seperate charge and seperate pile of evidence.

K,

Let me know what goes on tomorrow.

As soon as i hear something i will let everyone know I know one of the questions that will more then likely get asked is "do you (we) want to press charges?"

Other then that, hopefuly everyone's stuff is in there

Just wanted to chime in and say I was approached by Ahriman for a trade for items I had listed for sale. I declined so nothing came of it. Glad that is the case.

Anyway, seems like everything is well under control, and I hope it works out for everyone. Just thought I'd chime in to let people know even more scams were attempted on his behalf, and to bump for visibility.

For when you get the boxes(if you do)

5 terminators
Defiler
Contemptor
2 oblits
2 Furioso Dreadnoughts
10 CSM
10 SW

I live about an hour's drive and was the one he offered to meet to trade. I don't work so would have no problem driving down there if need be.

Just wanted to put in a note to thank everyone for remaining on-topic and keeping this thread open for useful coordination between the affected parties. This will need to continue to be the case as it is sorted out how to retrieve items from the police to return to the owners at the appropriate time.

As a reminder, posts by uninvolved members not aiding in the resolution of these transactions will be deleted as off-topic.

Again, thanks!

Good job everyone! I was told by PayPal that I should be receive my money money back if I haven't received the items by may 8th. I'm glad we were able to put a stop to this

For my bits would be
5 assult marines
Raptor packs 2
power weapons 5
Power fists 3
melta's 2
GK power swords force halberds 14(4 halberds 10 power swords
GK Inquisition shoulders 10
and then $40 steam games(how will I get that back if any one has a clue?)

does everyone have pictures of items they lost/ stolen?

I have pics of some(one of them he even took when he recieved it!) and descriptions of the others. Who should I PM these to?

I have the PMs I sent him with lists of what I was sending and I"ll happily give Warone or a Dakka moderator my password so they can log in and verify it.

Of course its totally uneconomical for me to have the stuff posted back so the American members involved might get a bunch of free Orks for their trouble.

For the record, I don't know if Det. Curtis will release the models to anyone other than the rightful owners. It might be that he'll have to ship them to you (probably at your own expense). My thought was simply that someone could go there and help the poor man sort through the mess.

That said, I don't know what the legalities are concerning that. It might be easier to sign some sort of release, allowing your items to be given to a third party for shipment to you. That presumes, of course, that there is a 3rd party willing to take on the headache.

Now, this next part is "easy for me to say," granted, as I have nothing lost in this issue, but my suggestion is that everyone move forward with pressing charges.
I'm sorry. I don't want to sound like I'm in favor of ruining this guy's life over "toy soldiers," but the facts are that (a) this guy has to learn that there are consequences to his actions and (b) this can serve as a DIRE warning to anyone else trying this stuff in the future; We will organize. We will catch you. We will prosecute you.
In all likelihood, you'll prosecute and he'll end up with a plea bargain. That's fine. It's on his record, now, and he will have some legal consequences for his actions. It might even include restitution to those of you who had/will have to pay to get your items shipped to you.

I'm glad I was able to help in this in some way. Let me know if you need anything from me.

Eric

I agree with the above post 100%

@MM, any idea how long that would take though? I have attemped to tally up the total amount he has scammed from Bartertown and Dakka and across the 21 people, he has scammed roughly $3000 worth? Not sure if that is approaching felony, otherwise wouldn't this go through a small claims court?

jathomas2013 wrote:
@MM, any idea how long that would take though? I have attemped to tally up the total amount he has scammed from Bartertown and Dakka and across the 21 people, he has scammed roughly $3000 worth? Not sure if that is approaching felony, otherwise wouldn't this go through a small claims court?

I have no idea if it is different per state but about 12 years ago my house was broken into and around 3,000$ worth was stolen and the police officers here said it was felony burglary. Of course the amount is/could be different in this case since its not burglary, but it may be well around that dollar amount.

Also, I hope some of the newer folks read this thread and are more careful trading over the internet. I refuse to send first if the person Im trading with has no trades, less then 50 trades, or has a new account.

Good luck to everyone!

The fact that he's hit people out of state/country really makes it a big deal.

I called Paypal to refund my money as well. Paypal provided me with this URL to report scammers and fraudsters:

http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx

Anyone know if this does any good?

I have also filed with IC3 earlier this month. How it was explained to me by the Colony PD was that they will help pull all the different reports together, to consolidate them to a central location. They would also determine where jurisdiction lies.

Then I will also file with them as well.

but the big question: By taking him to court our models obviously become evidence, so...

How long will this take??? I don't exactly wanna wait 2 years to get back my models