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Hero Restoration, Anyone know the latest?
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Started by Cantina201,

1,927 posts in this topic

revat

revat

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Posted
On 9/12/2024 at 3:25 AM, KCOComics said:
On 9/7/2024 at 8:37 AM, Detective781 said:

I don't blame you for being suspicious.  I have been monitoring this chat for some time and just created an account yesterday.  I thought it would make things a little easier to keep people updated instead of responding to each individual email or phone call.

IMG_4958.thumb.jpeg.1ed34f9c06a7ab195e48925ea470745b.jpeg

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Detective Wilcox, what is the process for victims to get their books returned to them? 

I know you've been able to identify owners for many of the higher value books. What about other books that were in Mike's possession? And how long will it take for the rightful owners to get their books back? 

I don't know about this specific case or specific jurisdiction, but generally I wouldn't expect them back before a verdict.  And even if there was a verdict, you might have to wait for sentencing, which might be months later.  And even then, there's probably a chance that the suspect might appeal the ownership of certain books that victims have claimed.  And after the books are technically available to be released, there still could be a decent amount of time for processing, and then there's the matter of non-comic folk packing up comics worth thousands of dollars and shipping them to you around the country.  

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Detective781

Detective781

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On 9/12/2024 at 3:25 AM, KCOComics said:

Detective Wilcox, what is the process for victims to get their books returned to them? 

I know you've been able to identify owners for many of the higher value books. What about other books that were in Mike's possession? And how long will it take for the rightful owners to get their books back? 

Recovered books are evidence and need to be retained until the court process is over.  There is a hearing scheduled for tomorrow.  After the hearing we will have a better idea of where the court process is heading.  I am still looking through all the recovered books to see if they belong to people who have already made reports to me.  My priority right now is to complete reports on the cases that are currently charged, and reports for new cases that came in after the arrest on 08/14/24.

I wish I could tell you how long this will take, but I just do not know.     

     

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Domo Arigato

Domo Arigato

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On 9/7/2024 at 10:37 AM, Detective781 said:

ID.jpg.3dedc60792be4aa64c968eedf80e9d50.jpg

I would like to print this out and laminate it......just in case I ever get pulled over.

Is that frowned upon?

 

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revat

revat

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On 9/12/2024 at 9:16 AM, revat said:
On 9/12/2024 at 3:25 AM, KCOComics said:
On 9/7/2024 at 8:37 AM, Detective781 said:

I don't blame you for being suspicious.  I have been monitoring this chat for some time and just created an account yesterday.  I thought it would make things a little easier to keep people updated instead of responding to each individual email or phone call.

IMG_4958.thumb.jpeg.1ed34f9c06a7ab195e48925ea470745b.jpeg

Expand  

Detective Wilcox, what is the process for victims to get their books returned to them? 

I know you've been able to identify owners for many of the higher value books. What about other books that were in Mike's possession? And how long will it take for the rightful owners to get their books back? 

Expand  

I don't know about this specific case or specific jurisdiction, but generally I wouldn't expect them back before a verdict.  And even if there was a verdict, you might have to wait for sentencing, which might be months later.  And even then, there's probably a chance that the suspect might appeal the ownership of certain books that victims have claimed.  And after the books are technically available to be released, there still could be a decent amount of time for processing, and then there's the matter of non-comic folk packing up comics worth thousands of dollars and shipping them to you around the country.  

I forgot to mention other potential things that could affect the timeline of books going back to their rightful owners:

1.  What if there are multiple submitters of the same title book, and multiple copies are found?  How do the police figure out which book belongs to who? 

2.  What What if there are multiple submitters of the same title book, and only one book is found?  How much time will the police take to make sure they figure out who it rightfully belongs to?  What if there is a dispute between victims.

3.  And what if some work has been done on some of those books and some improvements or (god forbid) damage has been done to those books and they're not quite as easy to recognize or match to pictures.

4.  What if people who have bought allegedly stolen books in good faith appeal their losses via the courts, as a lot of the books are quite rare and quite valuable.  Presumably they would lose EVENTUALLY in court if the original submitter had enough evidence, but its been a long time and work might have been done to the book and judges/juries might not really understand what's going on. Rich dude with lawyer could tie up the book(s) for a while.

5.  Presumably, the police are not comic experts, and want to do the right thing.  But how much time and effort can they put into making this right AFTER they've secured a conviction? Would they hire a comic-expert trustee to distribute the books? Finding a trustee and assigning the responsibility also takes time. 

6.  Will all the cases and charges be settled at the same time?  Will they hold the stolen books in evidence longer just in case newly identified victims come forward as a result of the case?

 

All this to say, be as organized as possible with as much evidence as possible, and don't have any expectations of timelines.  

 

 

 

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mmm68

mmm68

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On 9/12/2024 at 2:21 PM, Detective781 said:

Recovered books are evidence and need to be retained until the court process is over.  There is a hearing scheduled for tomorrow.  After the hearing we will have a better idea of where the court process is heading.  I am still looking through all the recovered books to see if they belong to people who have already made reports to me.  My priority right now is to complete reports on the cases that are currently charged, and reports for new cases that came in after the arrest on 08/14/24.

I wish I could tell you how long this will take, but I just do not know.     

     

Thank you for all your work on this case. Given the number of victims, this was always going to be a lengthy process. I am just glad that the process is moving forward.

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Steven Valdez

Steven Valdez

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On 9/13/2024 at 4:21 AM, Detective781 said:

Recovered books are evidence and need to be retained until the court process is over.  There is a hearing scheduled for tomorrow.  After the hearing we will have a better idea of where the court process is heading.  I am still looking through all the recovered books to see if they belong to people who have already made reports to me.  My priority right now is to complete reports on the cases that are currently charged, and reports for new cases that came in after the arrest on 08/14/24.

I wish I could tell you how long this will take, but I just do not know.     

     

I'd consider becoming a cop myself, if I could specialise solely in comic book fraud investigation.

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Designer Toast

Designer Toast

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Posted
On 9/12/2024 at 11:21 AM, Detective781 said:

Recovered books are evidence and need to be retained until the court process is over.  There is a hearing scheduled for tomorrow.  After the hearing we will have a better idea of where the court process is heading.  I am still looking through all the recovered books to see if they belong to people who have already made reports to me.  My priority right now is to complete reports on the cases that are currently charged, and reports for new cases that came in after the arrest on 08/14/24.

I wish I could tell you how long this will take, but I just do not know.     

     

Another thing with books that are now lodged as evidence, it isn't always up to the investigator when they're released.  The DA generally has the final say in that.

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Sigur Ros

Sigur Ros

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On 9/6/2024 at 2:33 PM, Detective781 said:

Greetings comic book enthusiasts!

My name is Matt Wilcox and I am the Detective with the Linn County Sheriff's Office who is investigating the Hero Restoration case.  I wanted to join this chat so I could provide information more efficiently and to potentially find any other customers who have not received their comic books back.  I have been a little overwhelmed trying to keep this case organized, especially now that the court process has started.  This takes up a lot of my time, and I apologize if I have not responded to some of your questions.  

To maintain the integrity of the investigation and the court process, I will not be able to discuss certain details, but I will post updates here as I have time.

Thank you for your patience.        

Hello ocifer *hic*

Question...

Do all the guys down at the station laugh and crack jokes about a bunch of grown-@ss men collecting comic books?

I bet they do. 

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DR.X

DR.X

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On 9/14/2024 at 12:10 PM, vheflin said:

I believe this may become an episode of American Greed.

I've been binge watching that show off and on for a few weeks. I am just dumbfounded by the number of people, celebrities, etc willing hand money over to con men. In one instance over 20 million by one of the sisters is heir to the Seagrams fortune, and got jail time herself. Some people got cleaned out and handed their life savings over, for a promised return on investment, that never happened.

I guess these people had no time to do research, and stop by a Vanguard, or Fidelity Investment center, and talk to the real deal. I was really surprised by the lenient sentence some of these crooks were given for cleaning people out of everything they owned. (shrug)

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Sauce Dog

Sauce Dog

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On 9/14/2024 at 1:10 PM, vheflin said:

I believe this may become an episode of American Greed.

I keep joking (but serious) to my wife that she needs to prepare for the inevitable Netflix crime doc about this case so we should start pushing maybe Keanu Reeves' agent to have him to play me in the flashback reenactments ;) . We should also start workshopping names, something akin to Making A Murder....maybe, RESTORING THE CON? FROM HERO TO ZERO?

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Cat

Cat

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On 9/13/2024 at 9:46 PM, Neo "The One" said:

 Come On People!

Sign me up, Chief. You'll get no better results. 

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