POS Thieves Amongst Us

[RetatCDude]

I recently sold one of my air rifles to a fellow in Albuquerque. He sent me a postal money order and asked me to let him know when I received it. I did. I shipped the rifle to him and is my routine, I tracked the shipment to his front door. He wanted to buy another rifle from a POS in Illinois. He also asked that seller to let him know when the money order arrived. He was not told and the money order was cashed. He tried to call the POS and discovered the phone was dis-connected. Yes, he could file a claim with the Post Office and start legal proceedings as it is mail fraud and could result in a lengthy time behind bars if the POS is found guilty. Of course the investigators are the US Postal inspectors and they hardly ever inspect or investigate anything. I have another friend who does some air rifle tuning as a sideline. He is a world class shooter and when not shooting runs his own heating and air conditioning company. A shooter in southern California sent him two TX200 rifles to be tuned. They apparently were delivered and just as quickly stolen. I suspect another delivery driver as he lives on his own ranch in the sticks. (Yes, in California.) This is not acceptable. We should all be on the lookout for any un-seasoned shooters who all of a sudden show up with an adult sized air rifles or pistols with no apparent clue on how to use them..

[Multigunner]

While some airguns are very pricey the vast majority are hardly worth the risk of stealing them, and not that easy to sell to a fence.
I strongly suspect that most such thefts are due to the thief believing there's a firearm in the box.
I figure the heavier airguns are the ones most likely to be mistaken for a firearm.

[Sweller]

The reality is, they will steal *ANYTHING.*

They will crawl under a Prius with a battery-powered sawsall and cut out the catalytic converter.

They will break into a home still under construction and steal all the copper pipes and wiring.

Los Alamos was the first place I lived where they put the theft detector strips in packaged pork roasts. I'm seeing them here now in organic ground beef.

I'm afraid to open my mouth in public for fear of losing my gold crowns!

[BillK]

The reality is, they will steal *ANYTHING.*

I'm afraid to open my mouth in public for fear of losing my gold crowns!

Crooks have been around forever.  Egyptian tomb robbers to porch pirates today.  The more communication you have with a person your going to send your $ to the better.  Not just one email.  Ask questions about item & location & sellers name ect.  NO honest seller will be hesitant to directly answer those questions.   JMHO on the matter, but I havent been burned yet.......yet?  Who knows......

[Rezarf]

Sometimes it's worth it to request signed delivery if the goods have  a high $$$ value, even when it costs extra - can be a pia, but you get your goods. When I was working (retired! YEAH!) I had all goods delivered to the workplace, since there was always an attendant that signed for stuff, or would call me when stuff came in.