Maybe this has already been posted here. This was on one of the ebay boards.
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Boat owner finds his Stolen goods on Ebay... called buyer in Feedback
Apr 9, 2011 1:37 PM Report
Ya gotta check that Feedback for clues... Ha!

Link

Sleuth goes online to find thieves
After a series of thefts in the Oak Harbor area, one aptly named boat owner took matters into his own hands.

Kristi O'Harran, Herald Columnist

Peter Hunt gave his boat a witty name.

When equipment from Sea Hunt was stolen, he used his clever nature to recover the goods.

Thank goodness for dumb thieves and social networking.

The Oak Harbor sleuth, 49, grew up on Long Island, N.Y. and in Athens, Greece.

"I began boating 30 years ago as a crew member on the New York wreck diving charter vessel Wahoo," he said.

He is a former United Airlines and Navy carrier pilot, and is now semi-retired. Hunt works as a consultant and part-time medical practice manager.

"I am a member of the Oak Harbor School Board and write in my spare time," Hunt said. "My first book, 'Angles of Attack, an A-6 Intruder Pilot's War' was published by Ballantine in 2000, and a second, a personal adventure history of diving the Andrea Doria, will be published this summer."

He moved to Oak Harbor in 1988 when he was flying A-6 Intruders in the Navy.

When there was a spate of boat thefts in the Oak Harbor area, Hunt said, Cornet Bay Marina was hit, where he moored the Sea Hunt.

"I was a little bit angry," Hunt said. "We have a tight-knit group of boaters. They invaded our space."

Crooks worked at night, Hunt said. Usually there are people around the marina at all hours, so it was odd to find things amiss. The thieves left a radar mount on the floating dock and a radar display might have gotten dropped.

"A few of us had blankets stolen as well," he said. "They were doing a reverse Santa Claus, stuffing the blankets filled with electronics."

Goods were stolen from about 25 boats, he said.

Hunt took matters into his own, stealthy hands. One stolen item was an old chart plotter, Hunt said. He said he decided to go to eBay and look to see if it was for sale.

"It showed up after a couple of days," he said.

He was fairly certain the plotter was his, he said. It was the only one for sale in the world and there it was in Oak Harbor.

Working through eBay, one doesn't know the seller's personal information. Now this is where Hunt really showed his detective's flair. He noticed that the seller also offered car stereos, minus the antennas.

He kept digging through former sales made by the seller and found a disgruntled buyer.

"I found someone out of Rhode Island who gave a bad review," Hunt said.

The person back east provided pivotal information about the seller.

Hunt called the Island County Sheriff's Department. He watched online sales of boat gear being made out of state and out of the country. Police gears turned slowly, but deputies eventually secured a warrant and arrested three suspects accused of breaking into boats and cars.

Hunt got back most of his possessions and other boaters got back about 90 percent of their gear.

The amateur crime fighter received one more thing: The Boat Owners Association of The United States gave Hunt $2,500 from its Theft Reward Program.

Busting a criminal on eBay or Craigslist is like a method used in the old days, said Chief Rick Wallace with the city of Oak Harbor police.

"In previous years, people would go to pawn shops," Wallace said. "This is a modern day extrapolation of that process."

He said if others find suspected stolen items for sale on social media lists, let the police know. If there is a reasonable belief property is stolen, the law can do it's thing.

When the Oak Harbor boat gear was recovered, Hunt said he looked through the loot and found items he didn't know were missing, like a stack of his DVDs.

"I got back everything except my comforter," he said.


Tips

The Boat Owners Association of The United States offers these tips to avoid the theft of a boat or gear:

Keep your boat locked when you are not aboard. Never leave your keys or valuable items on the boat.

Remove electronics (if possible) and use a lock on outboards and drives.

Continue to make periodic visits to your boat when it's in winter storage. Keep liquor out of sight of prying eyes.

If a boat is stored on a trailer, the best way to prevent a theft is to remove one or more wheels.

Keep copies of ownership documents, serial numbers and photos of your boat and equipment in a safe place off the boat for easy access, should a loss occur.

I forgot to add, I don't think the links work when I did the C&P.

I spotted a stolen tornado on eBay. I reported it to the insurance company and it was hastily removed from sale so I guess something happened

Yes, ebay is the place stolen stuff gets sold. If you are ever missing something, keep an eye on ebay.

Todd R sent me an email a while back for a listing of HT parts on ebay. At first I didnt think anything of it, figured someone was parting out a boat,I bid on and won the daggerboards, but then the sail got listed and it had a team logo on it. I emailed the owner and asked why he was parting out his boat. His response was, what the F are you talking about?

He checked the listing and contacted the seller in person and got most of his stuff back. Not sure the final outcome, but some of the stolen gear ended up back where it belonged.

He didnt even know it was missing until I emailed him. The person he hired to move and store the boat had taken all the loose gear and sold it to a pair who listed it on ebay.

Our Purchasing Manager was once looking to find a particular component on Ebay because the one we had allocated disappeared and our vendor couldn't get a replacement quickly. She found a brand new one on Ebay but was perplexed that it had our internal part number written on it...she discovered that an employee had been stealing electronic components and listing them on ebay...busted.

We had the same thing happening back when I worked for the Network Admin group at my university. We had all kinds of equipment going missing from telecom closets. Some student had taken his tc-closet key, made a copy, then came back a couple months later and swiped the gear and put it on ebay.

So did ya get in trouble?
How about you Tad?

Wow. I thought I couldn't tell a story in 5 mintues or less. The author of that article has some serious ADD issues.

Holy tangent, Batman, that's a whole bunch of my life that I'll never get back...

Mike