Where do they sell all those stolen Garmins?

[RobertGary1]

11 minutes ago, Ron McBride said:

How about spares for a flight school?   How about spares for an owners planes?   I bet a radio shop could sell them, and nobody would know.

 

Even if you could never update the database or get any service for it? It’s a small community doesn’t seem like it would take long for people to figure out the school is sketchy.

What about the IA doing the annual who finds there is no STC for it?

[David Lloyd]

Ten or twelve years ago a local radio shop had just installed a 430 in a customer's plane.  Within a short period of time, the 430 was stolen.  A couple months were spent haggling with the insurance company about replacing the new radio with a used radio. Finally, a used replacement was located at a large shop in Florida.  Serial numbers were checked an almost unbelievably, they were about to buy back his stolen radio.  FBI became involved.  Got this directly from the local radio shop owner.

[M20F]

15 hours ago, RobertGary1 said:

With no database what can they do with it?

 

-Robert 

Not very difficult to pirate database updates.  
 

[V1VRV2]

20 hours ago, RobertGary1 said:

With no database what can they do with it?

 

-Robert 

There’s an entire industry down in Mexico and South America of hackers whose sole job is to hack... cell phones, software, computers etc. My wife wife is Peruvian and she has first person knowledge of how the 3rd world economy works. They can’t afford to pay US prices so hackers find ways around the protections. I’ve been continually amazed what gets done down there.

[ArtVandelay]

10 hours ago, M20F said:

Not very difficult to pirate database updates.  
 

It should be nearly impossible if Garmin knows anything about digital security protocols....oh wait...they just got hacked a month ago....nevermind.

[Gary0747]

A couple of years ago thieves broke into an avionics shop at a Houston airport and cleaned everything out.  One of the thieves spotted an IPad and stole that too.  The IPad was traced when it was attempted to be used by a thief and all were caught. 

[jetdriven]

3 hours ago, Gary0747 said:

A couple of years ago thieves broke into an avionics shop at a Houston airport and cleaned everything out.  One of the thieves spotted an IPad and stole that too.  The IPad was traced when it was attempted to be used by a thief and all were caught. 

Yes I remember that theft, because my GTN750 was under the owners desk, fortunately, they didn’t look there. When they activated find my lost iPad, there it was, and they found 300,000 bucks of stuff in the U-Haul parked in front of the house. The stuff was all headed for Mexico. People pay half the value for cash no questions asked, and it goes away for good. Luckily, they recovered most of it

[Gary0747]

It seems Garmin could do something similar to Apple here by having the gps write its serial number on the data card and have that checked every time a database is downloaded and making sure only traceable means of payment are used for database updates. Maybe having a gps write to the data card is too complicated?

[RobertGary1]

10 hours ago, Gary0747 said:

It seems Garmin could do something similar to Apple here by having the gps write its serial number on the data card and have that checked every time a database is downloaded and making sure only traceable means of payment are used for database updates. Maybe having a gps write to the data card is too complicated?

Newer garmins do. You have to get database by serial number. The older 430s I’ve heard will just accept any update. 
 

-Robert 

[201Steve]

Yeah, nothing fancy about the data cards for the 400/500 series. I presume it could easily change hands a couple times and end up in someone plane never knowing one way or the other, but there def has to be sketchy shops involved. 

[FloridaMan]

On 10/22/2020 at 6:44 AM, RobertGary1 said:

With no database what can they do with it?

 

-Robert 

I’m pretty sure you can take the data card from one 430 and put it in another and the cards are merely a flash chip that is easily copied. 
 

This also highlights issues with our H1B work visa issues. I have friends all over the world or are brilliant engineers and could make great money here, if they could get in. Somehow work visas end up going to a bunch of no-talent people from South Asia and the brilliant engineers that should be here remain in shit-hole countries using their skills for whatever they can find.

[Gagarin]

Were these planes in a locked hangar or out on the ramp?

Edited October 27, 2020 by Gagarin

[ArtVandelay]

Were these planes in a locked hangar or out on the ramp?

OP said “tie down area”.

[RobertGary1]

4 hours ago, Gagarin said:

Were these planes in a locked hangar or out on the ramp?

If I were stealing radios I’d definitely go for hangers. Hanger locks are trivial to break and then you get to work in private without being seen. 
 

-Robert 

[TrekLawler]

Hello everyone,

   apologies for the delay, have been out of the office the last couple of weeks. we do have a process in place for tracking stolen Garmin equipment. the first step is to get the police report filed and then forward a copy as it has been outlined to our aviation.support@garmin.com inbox. we will then add all of this as well as the police contact information to our receiving database. in the event that a piece of equipment is received at our facility we will then contact our legal team and the police department for further action.

[carusoam]

Hey... Trek IS alive!   

Let’s let @Jerry Pressley know there is a response to his question...

Best regards,

-a-

[Little Dipper]

On 10/22/2020 at 4:47 AM, V1VRV2 said:

The avionics get sold outside the country. Mexico, South America most likely. 

+1 or Asia

 

 

[Little Dipper]

5 hours ago, TrekLawler said:

Hello everyone,

   apologies for the delay, have been out of the office the last couple of weeks. we do have a process in place for tracking stolen Garmin equipment. the first step is to get the police report filed and then forward a copy as it has been outlined to our aviation.support@garmin.com inbox. we will then add all of this as well as the police contact information to our receiving database. in the event that a piece of equipment is received at our facility we will then contact our legal team and the police department for further action.

Question,  How can a Garmin database get activated with out the serial number of the box.?

[Guest]

On 10/27/2020 at 3:24 PM, RobertGary1 said:

If I were stealing radios I’d definitely go for hangers. Hanger locks are trivial to break and then you get to work in private without being seen. 
 

-Robert 

And just how do you know that hangar locks are easy to break?

Clarence

[RobertGary1]

28 minutes ago, M20Doc said:

And just how do you know that hangar locks are easy to break?

Clarence

How do you think I got my new panel?

 

-Robert