Rip-off plan fails
338 words eaten alive on February 19, 2010 - Filed Under Business, thieves -
A few weeks back someone brought in an iPod touch to sell. The price was right so I bought it and the guy left. Not more than 30 seconds later someone else comes in asking if I bought any stolen items today. Uhm, yeah, like I’d know they were stolen when I bought them! So he rattles off this list of random things that he supposedly lost, including an iPod touch. So I asked him to bring in a list of the items along with serial numbers to prove he owned said items.
He said alright, I’ll be back, sounding rather upset that I didn’t simply hand it over to him. I’ve been buying/selling a long time and even when something does turn out to be stolen I don’t just hand it back to the “owners”. That’s a great way to lose money in a hurry. If it’s really stolen, file a police report and they’ll come confiscate it. Eventually the owner will get it back and maybe someday, on rare occasions, I actually get my money back. It’s the most honest way I can think to do things and since I can sleep well at night without the need of supplements like natural sleep aids, I take that as a sign of a clear conscience.
So, over the course of a week I had 4 people call up about this particular iPod, all claiming it belonged to them or a relative of theirs, but none could prove it. Someone claiming to be the uncle of the first guy even called to say he was bringing the cops in to take it back. Never showed up either. Finally it did get sorted out with the original owner coming in with serial numbers as proof and a 3rd party involved returned me the money I had paid for it.
Just one of the “fun” things I get to deal with as the owner of a (mostly) 2nd hand store!
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