Quote:
Originally Posted by ProfCrash
I still think he should report it to the police.
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This crime, if it is a crime, is an internet crime.
Now, where did the crime occur? Dunno. Depends on the crime. Theft of the Kindle - better contact Amazon, make them dig through their records, with the almost certain likelihood that the theft did not occur within the jurisdiction of this particular set of cops. Now what? Send the Kindle off to the cops at the location of the presumed crime? Somehow, I don't think it likely.
Who is the criminal? Dunno, maybe could find out from Craigslist. Maybe could find out that whoever he is, it's not who he told Craig. Probably would find out that he's located in that other jurisdiction.
Does anyone seriously think that even a small town cop has the time or incentive to do this? There is absolutely zilcho chance that if he reports this to the cops, anything happens other than the Kindle winds up in the police pound, until it is sold at auction a year from now. For five bucks. Which doesn't even cover the costs of the paperwork.
This crime, if it is a crime, is one of those small time crimes that only get dealt with if the police catch the criminal in the act. Shoplifiting, pickpocketing, hubcap theft.
I had my hubcaps stolen once when we had parked on the street, & didn't know about it till the cops showed up at my door and asked me if I was missing anything. Turned out the dopes who stole them did it right across the street from a cop. It took me a couple of hours to go down to the station & wade through the paperwork to get them back. But when it came to prosecution, it was silently but effectively communicated to me that as far as the cops were concerned, the case was closed.
Now, clearly, we should all avoid facilitating smalltime criminals. We shouldn't buy things that are probably stolen. But most things that are sold, at flea markets, garage sales, on Craigslist or eBay, aren't stolen, even though some small proportion of them undoubtedly are. You can't go around thinking anything you buy outside a department store is stolen.
This guy misjudged the situation. If the Kindle had been "new in box" at half the going price, that would have been a suspicious circumstance. But $20 bucks off? If you think about it, this is really a clever criminal we are dealing with - he hit the sweet spot at the lowest point, in the sense that he offered the Kindle at a price that was not so low as to be suspicious, and just low enough to allow a potential buyer to think that he stumbled on an easy and legitimate $20 discount. Or at least, he wanted to believe that and had just enough latitude to do so.
And it bit him in the moderator. So that should be an end on it.