Official Luthiers Forum!

Reading these kinds of stories sparked some sour memories for me concerning robbery and being violated by the
scum who commit it. I had bought a property in the town where I grew up back in 1984. It was a large double dwelling
with each side being 2300 sq. ft. and having four bedrooms and three baths. It needed renovation so I moved into one
side of the dwelling to live there while I renovated the other and planned to move next door to do the same to the other
side.

Well, I moved into this familiar and relatively decent neighborhood for the town I was moving back to after four years
away and set the first place up for me to live in. I had a great stereo, what were, at the time, a pair of large TVs and all
of musical gear there when I was burglarized and robbed one day as I was off playing in New York City with my then band.

I immediately called the police....some of whom were family and old friends....and they came and took my report and a
detailed list of what had been stolen. The burglars had left a full hand print on the tempered glass front of the stereo
cabinet in the living room and it seemed to be so obvious that I couldn't help but to think it was intentional. I asked if the
police were going to take the handprint just in case it was that of a known criminal or someone who they'd dealt with in
the past and they answered with, "You're insured right? It's really not worth the time or trouble to lift the print. "

After some pleading and a phone call from an uncle who was a higher ranking official in the police department, a
detective on the scene reluctantly pulled the print and took the sheet along with him. I got a call a few days later from
my uncle who said that they did match the print to a person, but it was matched to prints on record from his juvenile
criminal activity. He explained that they were not allowed to use those prints to identify him and pick him up since it
was not legal for them to keep on record juvenile fingerprint records. Our system is about as flawed as a system can
possibly be, in my opinion. These kind of ridiculous protocol and procedures make my head soin and my blood boil
any time I hear of another innocent law abiding citizen falling prey to their idiotic shortcomings. It make me wonder if
our lawmakers don;t have more family in crime than not.

So this guy and his two brothers who helped him were going to walk away with no possible legal action and were
going to be allowed to keep the nearly $30k in property that they'd carried out of my place. To this day, almost 35
years later, they have never been punished by the police or court system even though my brothers and I were able to
affect some level of justice only months after the burglary when we happened on one of them on the street. We were
younger, a little crazier and different people back then and those were different times in our country. It was a small
town with a rough reputation and we were on the tail end of the years of still being able to settle something behind
the woodshed, so to speak. Do it today and the scum will own your house and see you off to prison. There was a
certain level of satisfaction that we got from handling it in the only fashion that it was going to be handled, though.

It's just sad that, even now, the law will most times provide more protection for the rights of the criminal and for
their physical welfare than it will for the law abiding victim and their property. As long as you're insured, you may find
some relief from the financial loss caused by a robbery or fraud, but it will never match the satisfaction that can come
from seeing the people who are paid to arrest and incarcerate them doing their jobs.

Any time I see, hear or read about any dirty fraud or criminal being caught, prosecuted and imprisoned, I could throw
a party. That wasn't my only burglary and you never get used to being violated in that way. The second time, my neighbor
actually held the door for the half dozen guys who emptied my studio and helped them load some of the 30 or so guitars
and 24 or so amps that they stole onto their truck. She thought they were mambers of my band that had come to pick up
gear for a gig in the city. I was in Hawaii for two weeks at the time. Yay thieves!

I hope you get the guitars back Howard, and that you can offer a great report of this guy either being busted or
something suitable.

Regards,
Kevin Gallagher/Omega Guitars

sorry to hear about this! I recently put some items on local craigslist and have been getting approached by scammers too so I feel your pain! The scammers are more clever all the time. Check out the well worded response I got off craigslist below. Note: no specific mention of item itself or any details that could be tied to specific listing so I'm led to believe people like this target all items of a certain dollar amount, cashier's check raises red flag as it's easy to forge like what happened to you, and lack of personal contact beforehand- all red flags:

"Hello,

Thanks for your prompt reply.I really appreciate your detailed breakdown and frankness on this.Unfortunately, Im on my way to India on an official trip(I'm a marketing Executive) and wont be back for another two weeks, I would have come to inspect the item personally. Im taking your word for true on It though .

Im okay with the price, I think it worth it anyway. If you'd like to know, Im relocating to the UK soon and I'm trying to gather some good stuff for my new abode. Im buying yours amongst others,quickly! before someone else grabs it.So, I'll arrange to send you payment ASAP. However, I'll have to notify my shipper who's helping me move my stuff from the US ,to get set for the pickup of the item from your place as I MIGHT be delayed in India depending on how things goes.
Thanks.

PS: In the mean time, kindly get back to me with your information including your name to write on the check,contact address and your phone# so I can get certified check prepared and have it sent out to you ASAP."

Pretty scammy huh?!

Actually Todd
while that is a very well known variant of the cashier check scam -
this case was different from what I understand it in that
A) the person actually called and spoke at length about guitars and seemed quite knowledgable about luthierie,,, and seemed very genuinely a guitar player/enthusiast -
The "item" was discussed at length and in detail...
and
I dont believe any other requests were made such as send a payment to a third person..
In this respect it seemed very much that the item in question was desired as an object... either to keep or for quick resale....
In such a case as this its not nearly so transparent that its a check scam
as when there is very bad english/syntax/spelling errors and fishy requests involved such as third party payments and bogus shipping...
Cheers
Charlie

Or it could just be Michael!

Sorry, Michael, I couldn't resist!

_________________
Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Yeah Waddy bro but we love Michael for all the help he generously offers to us all!

Yes we do! And, I'm no exception. He is a generous guy!

_________________
Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Howard, you and I have never met in person, but...

I am willing to put up $100 towards a reward fund, to try to get your guitars back and catch the thief.

Dennis

_________________
Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

Todd
I didnt mean to make that sound like a jab, and its good to make people aware of all the different variants of this scheme - what a drag it is to be taken, I know how it feels - like a punch in the gut, oly the feeling that lasts alot longer than a punch in the gut!
Again...thanks for pointing out the other ways these cons operate...
Cheers
Charlie

Sorry to hear about your misfortune howard !being one of a kind items, hopefully they will be found and identified! where were the items shipped to? i Know ups does not deliver to post office boxes ! who would want to play a guitar ( or anything for that matter ) they stole? with the conomy tanking look for more scams and theivery . Jody