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Stolen Garmin GPS-400W and G5


seaero

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A Garmin GPS-400W SN 23120537 and G5 SN 4JQ020770 were fraudulently obtained via online credit card fraud by an individual in Montreal Quebec. The person appears to be auctioning them on eBay. Ask for serial numbers before you buy either of these units. They will be reported to Garmin and entered into their database. A police report has been filed as well.

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1 minute ago, orionflt said:

I found my stolen 430 on ebay, the person who stole it spent 8 yrs in federal prison.

Brian

Holy smokes!  Out of curiosity, how did you make that happen?  It seems like one of those white-collar crimes law enforcement would be pretty uninterested in pursuing?

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50 minutes ago, seaero said:

Yes thank you. They are on eBay right now trying to sell both units. We contacted eBay and hopefully they stopped the auction in time. 

I would hope that not only eBay stops the auction but also give information to the authorities

Else they would just move to another auction platform   

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Sucks.

What is the outcome of getting stuck with a stolen unit? I know of not being able to get service from Garmin. I guess you couldn't sell it and also have to disclose to the next aircraft owner and essentially you lose what you paid for it. But you can still use it for all its functionality as long as it's working no?

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1 hour ago, jaylw314 said:

Holy smokes!  Out of curiosity, how did you make that happen?  It seems like one of those white-collar crimes law enforcement would be pretty uninterested in pursuing?

I had the serial number of the unit and had filed police reports. when it came up on Ebay i reconized a finger print I had put on the screen during install, I hadn't wiped it off yet and the unit had only been installed a short time. I contacted the seller and asked for the serial number (waas just came out and I wanted to know if the unit was upgradable). he sent my serial number, I passed the info on to the state police who sent it to the FBI (Crossed state lines) and a year later a was told the trial results. that was over 10 yrs ago, 2 weeks ago i recieved a check from the courts for a few hundred dollars from the case. not totally sure what the payment was for but did confirm it was from that case.

Brian 

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15 minutes ago, orionflt said:

I had the serial number of the unit and had filed police reports. when it came up on Ebay i reconized a finger print I had put on the screen during install, I hadn't wiped it off yet and the unit had only been installed a short time. I contacted the seller and asked for the serial number (waas just came out and I wanted to know if the unit was upgradable). he sent my serial number, I passed the info on to the state police who sent it to the FBI (Crossed state lines) and a year later a was told the trial results. that was over 10 yrs ago, 2 weeks ago i recieved a check from the courts for a few hundred dollars from the case. not totally sure what the payment was for but did confirm it was from that case.

Brian 

did you get the unit back?

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14 minutes ago, orionflt said:

 2 weeks ago i recieved a check from the courts for a few hundred dollars from the case. not totally sure what the payment was for but did confirm it was from that case.

Brian 

Often courts/prosecutors will try to require a defendant to repay some amount as restitution as part of a sentence or plea bargain. They usually don't collect any or much, but they try to send some to the victim of the crime.

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1 hour ago, khedrei said:

Sucks.

What is the outcome of getting stuck with a stolen unit? I know of not being able to get service from Garmin. I guess you couldn't sell it and also have to disclose to the next aircraft owner and essentially you lose what you paid for it. But you can still use it for all its functionality as long as it's working no?

In this case... You have bought an aging brick.  A hot brick...

These devices have been incredibly well documented by serial number.

Big G controls the devices pretty closely.  The cloud makes serial number checking pretty easy.

Our Big G contact the other day, gave advice on some used G devices that were for sale.  He confirmed their serial numbers being in good standing... ask for Trek.

It is easy enough to check serial numbers before buying...

Where some challenges can occur... really smart criminals swap out an unstolen device for a stolen one.... the unsuspecting plane owner finds out the next time he sends it in for service.... the criminal sells the unreported ‘good’ device...

To protect yourself from buying a brick... check the serial numbers before giving money to somebody...

 

PP thoughts only, not radio sales guy...

Hest regards,

-a-

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1 hour ago, orionflt said:

I had the serial number of the unit and had filed police reports. when it came up on Ebay i reconized a finger print I had put on the screen during install, I hadn't wiped it off yet and the unit had only been installed a short time. I contacted the seller and asked for the serial number (waas just came out and I wanted to know if the unit was upgradable). he sent my serial number, I passed the info on to the state police who sent it to the FBI (Crossed state lines) and a year later a was told the trial results. that was over 10 yrs ago, 2 weeks ago i recieved a check from the courts for a few hundred dollars from the case. not totally sure what the payment was for but did confirm it was from that case.

Brian 

That's pretty awesome.  Not that it got stolen, but that the state troopers and FBI followed up on it to the degree they did.  I would have figured there response was "yeah, we'll look into it someday," so it's heartening to hear about that outcome (and that your insurance replaced it).

It does unfortunately remind me of a stolen avionics scheme I read about where a thief steals avionics from one aircraft, and breaks into a second aircraft with an identical unit and replaces it with the first stolen unit.  The first owner has tagged the serial number of his unit as stolen, but the second owner hasn't realized it yet (or ever).  This gives the thief time to sell the second unit and the serial number is clean.  So if your aircraft is ever broken into but it seems like they didn't steal anything, you'll want to check that your avionics are actually yours.

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2 minutes ago, jaylw314 said:

That's pretty awesome.  Not that it got stolen, but that the state troopers and FBI followed up on it to the degree they did.  I would have figured there response was "yeah, we'll look into it someday," so it's heartening to hear about that outcome (and that your insurance replaced it).

Messing with aircrafts is not a crime the FBI takes lightly.

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24 minutes ago, RLCarter said:

I think any type of tampering with an aircraft is a federal offense 

This is true. And a federal offense can have concequences that can be multiple times worse than a regular charge. Anytype of tampering with aircraft is charged federally unless the owner decides to persue the charge himself i believe.

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16 hours ago, Niko182 said:

This is true. And a federal offense can have concequences that can be multiple times worse than a regular charge. Anytype of tampering with aircraft is charged federally unless the owner decides to persue the charge himself i believe.

Yip, from what I understand it's not just tampering with an aircraft, but any criminal activity on an airfield is treated as a federal crime.  This would include breaking into my car parked at the hangar while I'm flying. Guess that could deter somewhat rational criminals, but means nothing when you're dealing with meth heads etc.

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43 minutes ago, mike_elliott said:

How much do they keep as an "administrative" fee?

I tried to get info on the payment, but the system they have for contact basically sends you in circles and doesn't get you to a real person. you need to have direct numbers.

Brian

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6 hours ago, pwnel said:

Yip, from what I understand it's not just tampering with an aircraft, but any criminal activity on an airfield is treated as a federal crime.  This would include breaking into my car parked at the hangar while I'm flying. Guess that could deter somewhat rational criminals, but means nothing when you're dealing with meth heads etc.

don't think so, a couple at my home base, were going through an ugly divorce, several planes, boats and hangars, They were hiding and selling crap daily from each other, Feds said it was a civil matter unless one of the planes was involved, didn't care about the boats and hangars and other stuff that were sold with out the other knowing

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2 minutes ago, RLCarter said:

don't think so, a couple at my home base, were going through an ugly divorce, several planes, boats and hangars, They were hiding and selling crap daily from each other, Feds said it was a civil matter unless one of the planes was involved, didn't care about the boats and hangars and other stuff that were sold with out the other knowing

I cant wait for the day until my aircraft has avionics worth stealing.

Realistically speaking, why are people so petty. 

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On 1/30/2019 at 8:17 PM, RLCarter said:

I think any type of tampering with an aircraft is a federal offense 

You are absolutely Right.

Years ago I had a Propeller that was delivered by mistake to a customer who is well know for not paying his bills in my area. The type of guy you have to almost beat a check out of.

Anyway, said Propeller was gone for almost 4 months an I found the plane in Iowa (AirTractor 602) that had gone north at the end of the Arkansas spray season, to spray fungicide on Corn.

My plan was to have one of my guys roll the flatbed truck up to Iowa through the night , then I would jump in my backward tail cream puff an meet the driver at the airport(2Y4)where the plane was spotted, remove the prop an 30min later be on my way back to Arkansas.

Well, little lady I live with(my wife) asked me to run that by the Attorney.

so I did.

He guaranteed me that there would be a Federal Minimum sentence, Man I got excited when he said that.

He said the beautiful thing about it was wouldn’t even have to track the guy down, he knows exactly where to find him. 

Thought that was a little strange, then he said I would be the one going to jail cause knowingly disabling any aircraft in any way  is a Federal Crime. No two ways about it.

So I was stuck with putting a fairly large labor lean on the N# of which I finally got paid for last year.

 

Edited by Cody Stallings
Fat Fingers
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