Gene
That's horrible!!! The pawn shop should have a record of who pawned the items. The police should be making an arrest if the pawn broker did his job. If not get the shop on receiving stolen property. No matter how much time the thief gets its not enough. I hope all the items get returned undamaged.
Pete
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!
Better hope that the thief saw them as something he could sell for a quick buck, not as brass by the pound that he can sell for scrap.
betamax Better hope that the thief saw them as something he could sell for a quick buck, not as brass by the pound that he can sell for scrap.
Uhg...that's just painful to think about!
San Dimas Southern slideshow
Back in mid 1970s, I was at a hobby shop in Burbank when some guy came in and wanted to sell a brass steam locomotive that didn't have a box. Every shop in Los Angeles area had been told of a robbery of a model train stores brass engines in the area. The owner took a look at the brass engine and said he had to check the prices in a book in the back room as an excuse to notify the police. Plain clothes police slowly began drifting into the shop and arrested him. As a customer I didn't have a clue anything that was going on until they pulled their guns. So the person who had the robbery should call ever pawn, hobby shop and who ever else the can find in the phone book and let them know.
The most brazen example of this sort of thing took place in Sacramento in the late '80s. There was a large open-to-the-public layout with a Sierra Nevada theme (including the City of San Francisco buried in the snow!) Immediately outside it's entrance was a small hobby shop.
The perp swiped a locomotive off a moving train on the layout, went outside and tried to sell it to the hobby shop owner...
Needless to say, the next person on the scene was one of Sacramento's finest!
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
That would be really scary----but----Gotta have the cash for those drugs, man--
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
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blownout cylinderbetamax Better hope that the thief saw them as something he could sell for a quick buck, not as brass by the pound that he can sell for scrap. That would be really scary----but----Gotta have the cash for those drugs, man--
How true.
How many times has that big copper rod seductively said "Come and get me!"
The blackout usually occurs about 30 seconds later. Seems they don't read the warning signs, and the fence is only there to slow them down.
Margaritaman betamax Better hope that the thief saw them as something he could sell for a quick buck, not as brass by the pound that he can sell for scrap. Uhg...that's just painful to think about!
-Morgan
Flashwave Margaritaman betamax Better hope that the thief saw them as something he could sell for a quick buck, not as brass by the pound that he can sell for scrap. Uhg...that's just painful to think about! And sadly, the first thing I feared.
Do you really believe that thieves are that stupid? If the steal it they want to make the most money out of it, and more often than not they fence it so fast that they don´t realise what they have stolen. And i can almost guarantee you that the fence is aware that collectibles are worth more as that, and not scrap!
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Graffen Do you really believe that thieves are that stupid? If the steal it they want to make the most money out of it, and more often than not they fence it so fast that they don´t realise what they have stolen. And i can almost guarantee you that the fence is aware that collectibles are worth more as that, and not scrap!
Now what they could have had, besides hot wiring the car for an easy $2000, they could have had a $200 stereo, a hand held remote for the stereo, a $50 cell phone, the phones car charger, a $40 electronic compas, and a $100 radar detector. The phone was between the seats, but the rest, including the stereo face plate, was in the non-locking glove box. My car also sat for what we figured to be around 40 minutes before it was reported, so the dirty little theif could have even come back and got the rest. Not to mention I had new wheels and tires they could have stripped off that were worth....800 to 900 bucks.
So see, besides the fact someone has to be pretty dumb to want to steal in the first place, some theifs are dumb. I do realize it was a collection of older brass engines and would be worth more as a collectable item then scrap, but what I meant was the theif would have got more money if he would have sold them as scrap brass compared to a pawn shop. I know how pawn shops work. Buy cheap, sell high. That sub I mentioned matched an identical subwoofer found amongst the theifs items. A sting operation caught him, but I had nothing like a serial number or even sales reciept to prove that it was mine, if it even was. I'm sure it was, the sub was an expensive brand so there wasn't very many people that have them around here. That 230 I bought it for was marked down from like 300. The stereo is in my current car. Heck this is the 3rd or 4th car it's been installed in.
GraffenDo you really believe that thieves are that stupid? If the steal it they want to make the most money out of it, and more often than not they fence it so fast that they don´t realise what they have stolen. And i can almost guarantee you that the fence is aware that collectibles are worth more as that, and not scrap!
The average thief really doesn't care, he just wants quick money. The pawnbroker will give him a few dollars for a computer, regardless of how much it is really worth. The thieves just want a few dollars, often to support an addiction.
When the price of metals skyrocketed over the past few years, there was no limit to what they would steal just for a few dollars. They cut catalytic converters off cars in parking lots because they got a few dollars for the precious metals within. Even breaking into houses to loot them of their copper pipes and wires. Or ripping off metal roofing materials from historic churches. If it looked like copper, brass, or aluminum, they stole it.
In this case, the thief probably has no idea what the locomotives are worth. He may get a few dollars from a pawnbroker, or the pawnbroker may decide that he isn't interested. After all, he is in business to resell the items later. A pretty good avenue for quick cash would be the scrap dealer, sadly. After all, getting some fast cash is the name of the game.
Oh you'd be surprised at the specimens, I mean, people we see up here. Last winter some guys tried to steal a transformer off a pole to get at the copper for pete sake!! Both were well known in the community for drug related issues------
In general, the criminal is not known for being very intelligent.
..... Bob
Beam me up, Scotty, there's no intelligent life down here. (Captain Kirk)
I reject your reality and substitute my own. (Adam Savage)
Resistance is not futile--it is voltage divided by current.
Seamonster Every once in a while----someone was brainless enough to try to take a live conductor home.
Darwinian selection or poetic justice. In either world view a good deed was accomplished. The perfect deterent it seems.
Why didn't they put up poster sized photos of the fried perpetrator all around the towers?
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SeamonsterSorry for the long paragraph but I haven't figured out yet how to make the iMac's Safari play nice with this forum.
Try it - do a test-post with a reply to this advice.
- Gerhard
I wouldn't necessarily say stupid, though many are, but many times it turns out to be a smash and grab for a quick buck. That's why odd things are left. Many times they see something and that's what they zero in on and leave other things behind to get out of there as quick as possible. They're trying to get out quick and are just quickly scanning and deciding on if somethings worth the trouble fast. Or they just don't notice it in their haste because they usually don't know how long they will be left alone. Usually many pawn shops are used to avoid suspicions and/or certain pawn shops are used that don't question the frequency of someones "visits". So check them ALL. Those pawn shops that do realize the worth will rip off, so to speak, the guy who brings them in. Kind of ironic, honor among thieves. But what happens that makes it harder to find the actual thief (and also the item because of the time it takes for the item to surface, usually a lot of times after they call off the search if there even is one) is they do a lot of buying among themselves or to people they know to get a few bucks and then the stuff eventually gets to a pawn shop. Maybe, many times not. It's very common for the stuff just to find a new home. If the lokes were painted the thief may not have known they were anything other than what they appered to be. Remember unless you're a MRR they're just trainsets unless told. If unpainted, they may not have known the differance between brass and copper. Since copper is such a big thing they probably didn't steal them for their collectable value or their resale value. They stole them for the metal. Same goes for if they knew the stuff was brass they would still have the same mindset as if it were a roll of copper tube. And having it attached to an air conditioner only makes it messier, not less appealing. These guys will risk life and limb for a few strands of copper and smashing up a beautiful steamer doesn't mean doodley squat to them.
Be careful of what you do, the thief has rights you know. He has the right to see your stuff and go get it. We have the right to call the police and file an insurance claim to replace the sometimes unreplacable.
What a system.
Todd
Central Illinoyz
In order to keep my position as Master and Supreme Ruler of the House, I don't argue with my wife.
I'm a small town boy. A product of two people from even smaller towns. I don’t talk on topic….. I just talk.
gerhard_kSeamonsterSorry for the long paragraph but I haven't figured out yet how to make the iMac's Safari play nice with this forum. If you type a left chevron P right chevron, without spaces, Safari will do a line feed. I can't actually type the characters here to show you, because the forum software will not print them as characters even if imbedded in text. Try it - do a test-post with a reply to this advice. - Gerhard
larakSeamonster Every once in a while----someone was brainless enough to try to take a live conductor home. Darwinian selection or poetic justice. In either world view a good deed was accomplished. The perfect deterent it seems.Why didn't they put up poster sized photos of the fried perpetrator all around the towers?
Speaking of thieves, some years ago thieves, stripped down the catenary wire from the formerly electrically operated Extertal-Bahn (Exter Valley Railroad), which is now dieselized. They took down some 10 miles! of the precious copper wire, without being noticed!
The bunch of jerks that broke into the famous Marklin collection were cought and now have to serve high sentences in jail...
It is a bad, bad world...
~G4
19 Years old, modeling the Cowlitz, Chehalis, and Cascade Railroad of Western Washington in 1927 in 6X6 feet.
If it was a smash and grab and all he took was those brass engines then the thief may have had a buyer waiting with no questions to be ask..
A collectible engine that sells for $500.00 and the buyer pays pennies on the dollar to the thief and then a quick turnover for the buyer to a unknowning customer that gladly pays that $500.00..
I don't think a collection of brass "toy trains" will be at the top of the police lists of crime investigations.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
As dumb as these mook thieves are, they know the value and I'm sure not one of them would approach a metal dealer with brass loco, he would 75 cents for it, see how small the loco is, it has about 50 cents worth of brass, so this urban myth of stealing brass locomotives and selling to a scrap dealer is just that, an urban myth. A scrap dealer would laugh the jerk off his lot.