Happy Ending

FishfulThinking · 01-25-2004, 12:53 PM

A couple of weeks ago I posted as my "newby post" how my car got broken into and a bunch of gear stolen while I fished Eagle Creek. The biggest loss was a Winston 5-piece fly rod which I had built up from a blank. Well, yesterday my wife saw an ad in the paper from some guy who buys tackle. She calls him and asks if he also sells. He directed her to his auctions on Ebay, and sure enough, there's my rod! I called the Clack. Co. sheriff, and spoke with the sergeant on duty, who promptly looked up the guy's address, drove over to his house and picked up my rod and held it for me at the sheriff's office in OR city. The tackle dealer said he bought the rod from some guy who called the number in his classified ad. He was upset at his loss, but must realize that when he buys a rod from some dude in the Seven Eleven parking lot, it's probably stolen. Still, I'm grateful he gave up the rod without too much fuss.

Major thanks to Sergeant Kevin Layng of the Clackamas County Sheriff's office. His quick work went a long way in restoring my faith in law enforcement. Now, if he can use the info the tackle dealer gave him to bust the schmuck who took my gear it'll be icing on the cake. :grin:

[ 01-25-2004, 01:55 PM: Message edited by: FishfulThinking ]

FishFearMe · 01-25-2004, 12:59 PM

Thats Great!!!! [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img] Your a lucky man to get your rod back after being stolen. I can't beleive how you were able to track it down and find it. Nice job on the the detective work. [img]graemlins/program.gif[/img]

[ 01-25-2004, 02:00 PM: Message edited by: Fishfearme ]

high_arc · 01-25-2004, 12:59 PM

Must be nice getting it back. I had a Lamiglass with nice reel on it walk out of my garage. Maybe I should look for it on ebay?? Can you pm me details about where I should look?

Birdnest · 01-25-2004, 01:06 PM

Behind every man is a smarter woman. :tongue:

FishfulThinking · 01-25-2004, 01:13 PM

Fishfearme, the credit on the detective work goes to my excellent wife, who, incidently used to work in the D.A.'s office in New Orleans.

high arc, you have a PM

Thumper · 01-25-2004, 01:15 PM

It's a funny world sometimes.

Years ago my son worked at Maury's Gun Rack. He had a nice auto pistol stolen one night from his locked car at home in Vancouver. He had removed the loaded clip.

Next day the young thief walked into Maury's and asked to buy a clip for a gun of the same description. My son smelled a rat and told him that each clip had to be hand-fitted to the gun. So the thief went to his car and brought the gun in. Three employees helped to hold the guy 'til the cops arrived.

Small world.

cutt plug · 01-25-2004, 01:25 PM

Glad to hear you got your rod back. Some things are just irreplaceble.

I'm glad to hear the police responded quickly.

Blazerboy · 01-25-2004, 01:31 PM

Wow that is so cool, what are the odds. neat story and an even better ending

kayakfisher · 01-25-2004, 01:45 PM

I love these kind of stories...

I don't for a minute consider the seller to be all that innocent for making such a buy. I wonder if he has a receipt? No...oh, sounds like a true innocent, very naive? Makes money buying through want ads, and selling on ebay, but doesn't know how to ask for authenticity of ownership, or to go to the home of the seller?

Yea, right...My guess is that he is a regular for the thief.

M.

Mad Mikey · 01-25-2004, 01:56 PM

Myself and some others have been broken into in the Clack area this last season. If you do find out that the "seller" gets busted would you contact me? I'd be curious to see if any of my stuff is in that dudes's garage.
I'm sure it's too late though. My stuff is probably long gone, as is the others. But you never know.....

lilnorthfork · 01-25-2004, 03:09 PM

Happy ending indeed!

Would you be so kind as to e-mail me the guys e-bay link? I want to make sure to never buy anything from him. Thanks. lnf

wootersen · 01-25-2004, 05:57 PM

I'm pretty sure I've bought stuff from him before. Seemed like a nice guy, I wouldn't jump to conclusions about this. If it's the guy I'm thinking of, he buys a lot of gear at estate sales. I bought a rod from him last year for a fair price, not a great one. I didn't even consider that it might be stolen. I'm pretty sure my rod wasn't. Just the same, I'll be more careful in the future.

Ifish is a powerful force. Maybe a respectful email to the guy asking him to keep records of people he buys from (with Drivers lic. #) would be in order.

FishfulThinking · 01-25-2004, 06:15 PM

Yeah, the ebay seller may be in collusion with the thief, but until it's proven so, I'm inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. However, if the thief is caught, I will be sure to post it, and how to contact the Sheriff's office to check for any stolen stuff.

Blue Tip Spinner · 02-12-2004, 06:11 PM

anything new with this? did your other stuff get recovered?