Stolen Equipment

[wasyoungonce (Brendan)]

What annoys me is cash converters obviously knew they were hot items. Yet didn’t ring police

Truly a circle of scum and leaches.

Hope you get them back they are your babies that you have obviously saved coveted loved and looked after. You must feel gutted.

[tphilip]

This seems to have gone off topic - is there a drug legalisation thread where pro/cons of decriminalisation can be discussed?

Anyway I have found serial numbers for a lot of the equipment so I will be following any future sales of Takahashi equipment closely. It is worthwhile checking the provenance before purchasing.

The following mounts were also stolen:-

Vixen Sphinx with starbook
Takahashi EM10b
Takahashi EM10 Temma2 Jr
Takahashi FC-M tripod
Vixen SP mount with tripod
Vixen SP single access drive controller
Vixen HAL110 tripod
Vixen SS2KPC controller and MT4 motors
2 x spare Vixen MT4 motors

[xelasnave]

My intention was no more than to make any additional post that would see this thread again on top of the general chat so as to offer the opportunity for more people to notice it and thereby hopefully increase the number of folk keeping a look out...simple enough...if you think about it.
Alex

[tphilip]

Getting stolen property back from Cash Conveters takes a lot of time. First you have to locate the property. Then you have to book a police patrol to attend the Cash Converters. You have to meet the police there with proof of ownership and the police report. They then determine if the property should be seized and if so will seize it and return it to the owner.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to where online I should look? I have been looking at gumtree, ebay, cash converters, adpost, amazon marketplace.

I have emailed the various Adelaide telescope shops and the astronomical society but heard crickets. Any contacts worth approaching would be much appreciated.

[Wilsil (Wilco)]

Hope you get your gear back.

[rbronca]

Sorry to here about your loss. I had previously sent an email within ASSA, flagging this thread. People are keeping an eye out. Hope you have more good news soon.

[tphilip]

Originally Posted by rbronca

Sorry to here about your loss. I had previously sent an email within ASSA, flagging this thread. People are keeping an eye out. Hope you have more good news soon.

Thank you for doing that. I used to be a member of ASSA and tried to grind and polish a 6" Newtonian at a ASSA class at Marryatville High School when I was in my teens. Polished but never completed. I think my lack of owning a telecope growing up helped contribute to my propensity to hoard them. Obviously I had way too much equipment as you can see from the list of gear which was stolen.

I do wonder what has happened to the large dry cabinet which was full of Masuyamas, Naglers, Takahashi LEs, Pentax orthos, Takahashi orthos, Takahashi erfles, Takahashi reducers and extenders, adapters, etc, etc.

[xelasnave]

Philip
It is a terrible loss but dont let it take more than is gone.
Content yourself that you once had these items. Now if you had a flash sports car and wrote it off would that be different.
You have to now look at the good things around you be brave and move forward to even a brighter future.
Alex

[tphilip]

So Cash Converters paid $50 for a Sky90 and FS78. Like all the other expensive stuff they fence they just pretend they didn't know it was stolen. And the platitudes of Cash Converters and the police that there are rigorous checks in place ring hollow. There is no oversight and they sell stolen goods with complete impunity*.

I have serial numbers for all the expensive stuff. I imagine that sometime in the future I will stumble across some of it and I will take action and it will end up being seized.

(*meant to type impunity rather than immunity)

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by tphilip

So Cash Converters paid $50 for a Sky90 and FS78. Like all the other expensive stuff they fence they just pretend they didn't know it was stolen. And the platitudes of Cash Converters and the police that there are rigorous checks in place ring hollow. There is no oversight and they sell stolen goods with complete immunity.

I have serial numbers for all the expensive stuff. I imagine that sometime in the future I will stumble across some of it and I will take action and it will end up being seized.

If I buy stolen goods even if I don't know they are stolen then the rightful owner can take them back and it's my loss. That is the law. Why would cash converters be any different? Do they have a legal framework that sets them aside of the law?

[N1 (Mirko)]

Originally Posted by tphilip

So Cash Converters paid $50 for a Sky90 and FS78.

I don't think I'll ever set foot in one of their branches again.

Best of luck recovering what's yours.

[AnakChan (Sean)]

It looks like you've made some progress in locating some of the stuff. That is good. Esp if you have matching serial numbers, it may give more credibility to the other stuff CC bought that you may not have serial numbers for.

[Hans Tucker (Hans)]

Originally Posted by tphilip

So Cash Converters paid $50 for a Sky90 and FS78. Like all the other expensive stuff they fence they just pretend they didn't know it was stolen. And the platitudes of Cash Converters and the police that there are rigorous checks in place ring hollow. There is no oversight and they sell stolen goods with complete immunity.

I have serial numbers for all the expensive stuff. I imagine that sometime in the future I will stumble across some of it and I will take action and it will end up being seized.

Cash Converters claim that goods can't be accepted to any of their stores without full identification. So what identification was presented in this sale .. and are the Police perusing this .. if not will Cash Converters show you the so called ID they accepted for this buy. If fake ID was used then if Cash Converters were serious about stamping this out then they would flag the ID across all their stores. I gather no in store surveillance footage of the date and time when the stolen goods were received .. maybe a image of the low life perp.

[tphilip]

Unfortunately I am not privy to police investigations. I do know that the police obtained the details of the sellers at the two Cash Converters stores, I also know that they identified some of the fingerprints left behind at the scene of the theft. Whether or not they have followed up or done anything with any of this information they won't say and aren't forthcoming at all.

Trying to find items at Cash Converters is very difficult - unless they advertise it on their website or gumtree or other sites then you'd have to visit every store to find anything and you'd have to do it on a regular basis. Yes once you have located items and have proof of ownership and have reported the items as stolen and have a police report then the police will help seize the items and return them. But it isn't simple and I'd be very surprised if many of the stolen items which pass through their stores are ever identified. And of course this doesn't include all the pawn brokers and other shady places were people try to offload hot items for cash.

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

Suspicious listing on Gumtree. Not saying it has anything to do with the OP's equipment because it is also in SA, but rather than start a new thread I thought just tag on to this one.

The phrasing of the listing, the lack of details and the appearance of the scope that looks like its been left to knock about in the back of a truck all point to something not being right. I have never seen a scope look so knocked about:

https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/anga...ope/1280514149

I hope I am wrong about the listing, but it just smells off.

Alex.

[tphilip]

Originally Posted by mental4astro

Suspicious listing on Gumtree. Not saying it has anything to do with the OP's equipment because it is also in SA, but rather than start a new thread I thought just tag on to this one.

The phrasing of the listing, the lack of details and the appearance of the scope that looks like its been left to knock about in the back of a truck all point to something not being right. I have never seen a scope look so knocked about:

https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/anga...ope/1280514149

I hope I am wrong about the listing, but it just smells off.

Alex.

Not one of mine. But that listing is very dodgy. Maybe it should say "OR SWAP FOR SOMETHING LESS HOT PLZZ". Brand new user called Graeme and yet it says call Damien. The images of the guys hands and where he lives don't instill much confidence. I wouldn't want to meet up with the guy while carrying any cash in my wallet. No meta data on the webp images to see where it actually is. Thanks for keeping an eye out and posting here. Feel free to make an offer on it!! Caveat Emptor. Also on Facebook marketplace:- https://www.facebook.com/marketplace...74857489230805

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

I sent the seller of that 6SE a carefully worded couple of questions the day the ad appeared to feret out his knowledge of the scope - my message has been gone unanswered.

Yep, really stinks now.