There is certainly no harm. Were it me, I'd take the auction down and try to resolve this in a way that works for EVERYBODY, but, the guy is certainly within his legal rights as a business to owner to proceed with the eBay sale.
Kevin
My Stolen cue is on eBay
- Thread starter howardthedick
- Start date
There is certainly no harm. Were it me, I'd take the auction down and try to resolve this in a way that works for EVERYBODY, but, the guy is certainly within his legal rights as a business to owner to proceed with the eBay sale.
Kevin
Depending on the value of the cue, you need to file a civil pleading in state court in Alabama to recover the cue, and get it served on the pawn shop ASAP.
In Tennessee, the fact that you voluntarily surrendered the cue does take it from a criminal matter to a civil matter as far as state law goes. No idea about Alabama or Indiana. I have fought this fight before over a stolen banjo that was actually stolen from a car.
Now, with that said, federal law and a claim of mail fraud may be an entirely different animal. See if you can contact the postal inspector in Alabama to see if you can work that route, especially if you have filed a report with the postal inspector. A federal law enforcement officer with a big gold badge may make a lasting impression on him.
Remind the seller that he needs to keep the name and address of the purchaser, because you intend to chase the cue until you get it returned.
Truthfully, probably cheaper in the long run to just buy the danged cue back and be done with it.
In Tennessee, the fact that you voluntarily surrendered the cue does take it from a criminal matter to a civil matter as far as state law goes. No idea about Alabama or Indiana. I have fought this fight before over a stolen banjo that was actually stolen from a car.
Now, with that said, federal law and a claim of mail fraud may be an entirely different animal. See if you can contact the postal inspector in Alabama to see if you can work that route, especially if you have filed a report with the postal inspector. A federal law enforcement officer with a big gold badge may make a lasting impression on him.
Remind the seller that he needs to keep the name and address of the purchaser, because you intend to chase the cue until you get it returned.
Truthfully, probably cheaper in the long run to just buy the danged cue back and be done with it.
Albertville, where the pawn shop is, is a smalltown....maybe 20,000 people. Gunterville, where Greg shipped the cue, is a small town of 8,000 people and the two are about 15-20 miles apart.
My suggestion for Greg to talk to a detective there is based on the fact that I come from a small Alabama town, and everybody knows everybody else. A detective might give Joe's Pawn Shop a call and ask where the cue came from, at least. If things check out, he might look a little deeper. I mean how likely is it that a dude from Illinois would make up something about, or even know, a dude from Gunterville. You never know.....least that could happen is a "sorry, we can't help".
I had an issue a few years back with a dude in Arizona. I called the Maricopa County Sheriff's office, and they were happy to check things out. The situation got corrected really quickly.
Here where i live, we just had a guy convicted for something somewhat similar...it was in the newspaper. He was convicted of "Theft by Deception".
Joe
My suggestion for Greg to talk to a detective there is based on the fact that I come from a small Alabama town, and everybody knows everybody else. A detective might give Joe's Pawn Shop a call and ask where the cue came from, at least. If things check out, he might look a little deeper. I mean how likely is it that a dude from Illinois would make up something about, or even know, a dude from Gunterville. You never know.....least that could happen is a "sorry, we can't help".
I had an issue a few years back with a dude in Arizona. I called the Maricopa County Sheriff's office, and they were happy to check things out. The situation got corrected really quickly.
Here where i live, we just had a guy convicted for something somewhat similar...it was in the newspaper. He was convicted of "Theft by Deception".
Joe
Sent to Pawn Shop:
That cue was stolen from Greg Howard last year.. He sent it to Chris Wood and he said he never got it.. Please check your records or call the Sherriff.. It is a stolen cue.. Thanks, Dan
Reply from Pawn shop:
I got a call from a guy that said this used to be his cue, but he is in Indiana. We are in Alabama. I have asked him to provide me with a police report, but he said that he did not have one. He said that he sold it to a person in Alabama, and the person did not pay him. I spoke to our police department. They said that they have no record of a report being filed or requested down here, and further, the situation that the "victim" claims is a civil matter rather than a criminal one since he willingly shipped the item to another party. I don't really know if the story is legit, but it is the fishiest thing that I have ever heard of. He wanted me to sell him the cue for what we paid for it. As a side note, the name that he supplied to me was not the owner of the cue when we purchased it.
That cue was stolen from Greg Howard last year.. He sent it to Chris Wood and he said he never got it.. Please check your records or call the Sherriff.. It is a stolen cue.. Thanks, Dan
Reply from Pawn shop:
I got a call from a guy that said this used to be his cue, but he is in Indiana. We are in Alabama. I have asked him to provide me with a police report, but he said that he did not have one. He said that he sold it to a person in Alabama, and the person did not pay him. I spoke to our police department. They said that they have no record of a report being filed or requested down here, and further, the situation that the "victim" claims is a civil matter rather than a criminal one since he willingly shipped the item to another party. I don't really know if the story is legit, but it is the fishiest thing that I have ever heard of. He wanted me to sell him the cue for what we paid for it. As a side note, the name that he supplied to me was not the owner of the cue when we purchased it.
Personally. If this was my stolen cue and the auction was going through with out any pause. If you have an eBay account (if not make one) and out bid everyone for it anytime it's listed and don't pay for it. I would do this just to let the seller know that it really is stolen and if he is going to sell it and make money off you're possessions, make it as difficult as possible. IMO if it truly was mine I would put up a 3k bid and not pay..wait for it to come up again and do the same. When eBay contacts you they will take you for real at this point.
A for real deadbeat bidder, operating completely outside of eBay's guidelines for behavior. I guess you have found in your experience that the best way to get a corporation to take you "for real" is to at first introduce yourself by breaking their rules.
Good advice.
Kevin
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:scratchhead:
And what about the other people who bid? Second chance offers are sent all the time if someone doesn't pay.
The problem is...the Ebay seller is not the person who did anything wrong.
It's business as usual for him and it looks like he is doing good.:sorry:
I would first try to stop the current attempted sale on ebay by coercing the pawn shop to hold onto the cue through the threat of a claim of selling stolen property. I suggest the person telling you only a federal claim applied might not have known your full list of options. This is an important point as in order to have local police involved, you should ideally have a claim under the state law in which you want to assert the claim. Just off the top of my head, most states have codified common law criminal theories of Larceny by Trick, or Obtaining Title by False Pretenses, or some other relevant state criminal theory to which you could apply to the person who received your cue. Once you find the appropriate theory, you should then report the incident to the authorities in the locale where the pawn shop resides (preferably), or your own locale. I would then send notification of the report and copy, to the pawn shop or current holder of the cue. At the very least, I would contact the pawn shop letting them know you have photos downloaded from the ebay listing (and also have them), that you have photos which can be compared to those ebay photos and that you have evidence the cue was wrongly obtained from you. Additionally, I would post on the ebay listing a notification that the item was wrongly obtained by the seller, and therefore anyone purchasing the cue might be subject to a claim of knowingly receiving stolen property. I believe in most states a pawn shop having reasonable suspicion of an item they are dealing with is stolen needs to make a reasonable investigation into the validity of their title in the item. Therefore you should immediately contact authorities and notify the pawn shop with a copy of the report. Of course I have no idea what the truth is, but as presented in your original post, and if true, I would proceed in some manner similar to what I have proposed above.
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Yes it is business as usual for the seller. Has anyone looked at this sellers feedback? He obviously does not care about his customers. He sells defective gun parts for christ sake! This seller has no honor or integrity and will be on my banned sellers list. If he will sell a product that is unsafe he would definitely lie about where he obtained the cue. Until he proves that he bought the cue legit he should do the right thing by the OP and sell it to the OP for what he has in it. It is what I would do.
Just heard from the Pawn shop
i just got off the phone from the owner of Joes Pawn Shop. Seems like a real nice guy. He says he totally believes me and that the cue is the cue that was stolen from me. He knows that I was taken totally advantage of, yet he doesn't want to be taken advantage of either, so he says he would let me have it for the $800 that it's at now on eBay. I told him that there's no way that I could do that since its beat up with one shaft and $800 would be full retail. I originally had this cue with 2 shafts and in great condition and would have been happy to get $1000. BTW, does anyone have any idea why this cue could be bringing $800. Just 3 days into a 7 day auction? I told him I'm a buyer at $400 and I think that's more than enough considering its mine to begin with.
Thank you,
Greg
i just got off the phone from the owner of Joes Pawn Shop. Seems like a real nice guy. He says he totally believes me and that the cue is the cue that was stolen from me. He knows that I was taken totally advantage of, yet he doesn't want to be taken advantage of either, so he says he would let me have it for the $800 that it's at now on eBay. I told him that there's no way that I could do that since its beat up with one shaft and $800 would be full retail. I originally had this cue with 2 shafts and in great condition and would have been happy to get $1000. BTW, does anyone have any idea why this cue could be bringing $800. Just 3 days into a 7 day auction? I told him I'm a buyer at $400 and I think that's more than enough considering its mine to begin with.
Thank you,
Greg
he could easily be jacking up the price on the auction himself...him not being taken advantage of would be him selling it to you for what he paid for it... which we all know how low they pay for cues
I am not real keen on the true value of this cue however, I very in tune with values of a handful of cues that I collect and follow on ebay. From my experience when a cue goes for much more than what it should have gone for more times than not the cue will be relisted due to a non paying bidder.
I'd give 10 to 1 odds that "Joe" has less than $100 in the cue!
Does not matter now as the seller ended the auction. Do not know why, but it has ended.
I wonder if Howard ever called the local Cops about the Pawn Shop offering on fleabay what they now know was stolen merchandise?
takeitdown
Banned
No, you buy it then return a box of rocks claiming item not as described.
I agree with Sig. Thats BS that he would ask for $800 knowing that he has NOwhere near $800 in it. And the Pawn Shop owner says he believes that the cue is Howard's....what a douche!
Chris
I was talking to my brother a few days ago about this. He originally thought it was a Meucci so there is no way a pawn shop would buy it for more than $100. I hope Howard got his cue back. I was going to go to the pawn shop, but life got in the way this week. I may still go up there because its only a 30 minute drive for me.