• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Heads up on stolen books

Started by cheetah,

280 posts in this topic

cheetah

cheetah

Posted
  • Author
Posted

NOW we're acting like CG!

 

Anyway, here is the story.

 

I needed my deck stained and some drywall work done in my basement so I hired a local guy who has a small company that does that kind of stuff. The work in the basement went fine but before he could finish it, I went to Costa Rica to buy some property. While I was gone, he wanted to get me deck work done and I said it was okay since it seemed like an easy project.

 

Turns out the guy he hired part time to do the work had some, er, issues. Given the look of his teeth, I'm guessing he had a problem with Meth.

 

I've not talked about where I stored my books. My ex had a pre-fab barn built for some cows back in 1999. When she and the cows left, it sat empty for 10 years so I got a wild hair and had it totally refinished to be a man cave. AC, big-screen TV, good lighting, and ample space for my books since they no longer fit into a single bedroom. The barn sits back from the house and is pretty inconspicuous. As far as I know, I have two neighbors who even know it is there. Nice and secure and temperature controlled.

 

It looks like Mr. Handyman took a stroll and checked out things on my property. He pillaged a storage shed of some tools and managed to get the door to my barn open. Now, it used to be that I was in my barn every day. Since my collecting has been waning, I don't go out as often. In fact, I didn't go out to it for about 10 days after i got back from Costa Rica. Big mistake on my part.

 

So I go to my barn on Tuesday to get some books I had sold and it was clear someone had been in it. Lots of holes where boxes used to be. Some books out that should have been in boxes. My Fiction House rack was obviously missing a stack of loose books and three boxes.

 

Now, it doesn't take an Einstein to realize that the person most likely involved was the handyman with the meth teeth. So the first people I call are the police and the second is the guy's boss. The police arrive just before the boss and he comes complete with the guy's name and phone number. It was pretty clear to me that he knew the guy did it, too. He had done a criminal check on the guy and found he had prior convictions in the early 2000s. --Why he was hired to work on someone's property unsupervised is a question for lawsuits to handle so I won't belabor the issue.-- I tell the police it looks like $80,000 worth of books based on the GA boxes that are missing.

 

The police tell me a detective will be assigned to the case on the morning. I wait patiently till lunch time the next day and call the Sheriff's department to find out who it is. I am told that the woman who could answer this is on vacation and she will be back Monday. With thoughts of Edgar Church's books being used as coasters for beer cans, I explained to her, as clearly as possible and in as nice a tone as I was able to generate, that we were talking about $100,000 worth of books and if someone had robbed a bank, I doubt the bank would be asked to wait five days before anyone could be bothered. She was a bit terse with me but still took the time to find out that they hadn't even gotten the report yet so she would leave a message with the deputy that answered the 911 call.

 

Next day, I get no call so call again at 11:00 only to be told no one was assigned but they would be assigned today and would call me that afternoon. At 4:45 I call back and learn that, even though they are open till 5:00, they quit answering the phone sometime before 4:45.

 

The deputy finally calls me at 9:00 pm yesterday and, of course, I have left my phone in the car while working in the barn to do a complete inventory on more than 12,000 sold, present and missing slabs. At 10:50, I get me phone, here the message, and learn he gets off work at 11:00. I call immediately but he isn't there. **spoon** **Big hairy freaking rotten nasty spoon**.

 

So while I am fuming with myself, he calls me back about two minutes later. I tell him that the total is now more than $100,000 and that I am concerned...really, really, really concerned...that meth man is so stupid he will leave the books out in the rain and getting back $100,000 worth of books that are now worth $3.45, would suck. He promised he would email his Sargent and see if things could be taken care of sooner.

 

Turns out, he was good to his word and I got a call from the Sargent at 8:25 am. I told him all the details, told him I had some books I thought the perp had touched and that the perp had also taken a chainsaw.

 

Fully-encapsulated, graded and uniquely numbered CGC slabs weren't very interesting but the chain saw! Man, he was REALLY excited about the chain saw. Get him a serial number and he'd nail meth man. I've got 12,000 scans of cert numbers on CGC books but never thought to scan my chain saw. Not a mistake I will ever make again.

 

The Sargent tells me he will talk to the Detective who has been assigned to the case (but won't be in the office till Monday. :cry:

 

So I do some work (coz I still have a real job) and my kid wants to get some lunch. I already ate so we go to Noodles R Us and he eats noodles and I decide to search craigslist and eBay for the 437th time in the last three days. Since I've not found anything so far, I change my search and look for CGC books I knew I was missing, newly listed, within 50 miles of me. 'CGC Thunderbolts' goes into the search bar.

 

I kid you not, the first dang book on the list is one of my books. Turns out, there were 12 of my books listed by one seller from Cincinnati. So me and the Sargent have a talk and I try to talk him through an eBay search but that goes nowhere. So we head back to my office and within 15 minutes, I have the sellers phone number, address, a street view of their house, and a list of 20 of my books that they have already sold.

 

A quick call to the Sargent got him the information and he promises to call and get some info.

 

Turns out, he can't just call someone because someone gave him their phone number. But what he can do (actually what someone else could do since I guessed the Sarge isn't the technology officer) is send a message through ebay to the seller. Twenty minutes after I hung up the phone, he calls me back and says he found the guy who bought my books and he and the buyer will meet me in 45 minutes.

 

45 minutes later, I am in the parking lot as a deputy opens the back of an SUV and there are my boxes. Not dented, not scratch, not soaking with water, and most definitely not empty.

 

I'm not a particularly emotional person but I admit I felt a combination of relief and agitation that made my head buzz. They buyer had an add on craigslist about buying comics and the guy contacted him asking $3/slab. Almost everything was via text message from the perps phone.

 

As an aside, every time I type 'perp' I envision the cover of Judge Dredd #1 with Mr. Meth as the perp. Kinda makes me do a little happy dance inside.

 

Anyway, the Sargent was a bit unhappy that he was going to have to go through each and every one of the boxes and document each and every book. I did not volunteer how much time I thought it would take him and how many mistakes he would make in the first box alone. Regardless, there were 22 boxes of books in the SUV. All of them mine. About 1/3 golden age with a total value of $115,000 give or take. The rest were moderns with a value of about $3.95. They have a weekend away at the local sheriff's office while the Sargent tries to formulate a plan on how to handle them.

 

So Mr. Meth is still a free man whose clock is ticking (I'm reminded of the hour glasses in DEATH's house on discworld. The police want to make sure they have everything straight before they arrest him. I'm of the opinion that it was the most expensive burglary in 10 years for the department. They seemed pretty happy with the result and I expect the guy will be arrested next week and will plead guilty to a lesser charge. My biggest regret with that is that I won't get to go to court and wave to him a he is carted off to Federal prison since he made the mistake of taking the books from Kentucky to Ohio to sell them.

 

I really need to get a picture of the guy and have a Judge Dredd #1 cover recreation made. That would tickle me to no end.

 

That's the story, long and short. I can't believe I found the books thanks to a Thunderbolts issue that I KNOW I am the only person who has ever had one graded. I will say that even though I don't really care much for CGC, having graded and uniquely numbered books is a great way to track them when they are stolen.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
cheetah

cheetah

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Great news. Now arrest the guy.

 

And I would think the guy who is buying 9.8 Church GA books for $3 a piece must have known they were stolen. He's not smelling too good here either.

 

I left that out. Turns out he called Heritage to find out who owned a Wings #1 CGC 9.4 but they wouldn't give him a name. I probably ought to call Barry Sandoval about that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jaybuck43

jaybuck43

Posted
Posted

The problem is the police will have no interest in going after the fence. Cheetah hit the nail on the head, the cops were more interested in the chainsaw then the $110,000+ in books. BTW... did you get the chainsaw back???

Link to comment
Share on other sites
cheetah

cheetah

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I've got no beef with the guy who bought them. He knew they were stolen but they were better off in his hands than elsewhere. I hadn't had time to give it any thought but I will probably make him good on the total if he gets back the moderns he sold. I can probably get that back from the contractor's insurance company.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
walclark

walclark

Posted
Posted
Great news. Now arrest the guy.

 

And I would think the guy who is buying 9.8 Church GA books for $3 a piece must have known they were stolen. He's not smelling too good here either.

 

I left that out. Turns out he called Heritage to find out who owned a Wings #1 CGC 9.4 but they wouldn't give him a name. I probably ought to call Barry Sandoval about that.

 

When my burglary occurred, the thief left all the slabs behind. I think the fact that they had numbers on them made him realize they would be easy to trace.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
cheetah

cheetah

Posted
  • Author
Posted
The problem is the police will have no interest in going after the fence. Cheetah hit the nail on the head, the cops were more interested in the chainsaw then the $110,000+ in books. BTW... did you get the chainsaw back???

 

They wanted the chain saw because they can call the pawn shops with the serial number and find out who sold it to them. They like chain saws because they deal with chain saws all the time. Comics, not so much. I imagine the next time someone calls up with missing comics, they'll be a little better prepped to respond.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
VintageComics

VintageComics

Posted
Posted
The problem is the police will have no interest in going after the fence. Cheetah hit the nail on the head, the cops were more interested in the chainsaw then the $110,000+ in books. BTW... did you get the chainsaw back???

 

They wanted the chain saw because they can call the pawn shops with the serial number and find out who sold it to them. They like chain saws because they deal with chain saws all the time. Comics, not so much. I imagine the next time someone calls up with missing comics, they'll be a little better prepped to respond.

 

This part is just hilarious. I can see a movie made around a missing chainsaw with a zillion dollars in comics being in the way! :roflmao:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Go to topic listing