Victim spots stolen GPS on eBay, seller gets pinched

We love hearing about stolen gadgets and the weird ways they're recovered. Take the case of Mr. Wronged (real name has been changed to protect the innocent ... and we don't know it) who had his GPS unit stolen right out of his car, a perfectly natural place to store such things. When confronted with his loss -- and his lousy sense of direction we presume -- he was propelled into the comforting embrace of eBay, eager to renew his GPS relationship, going so far as to replace his lost unit with the very same model. So, imagine his surprise when he found his exact unit, easily identified by its "special power cord" and verified by serial number. After the eBay seller -- one Mr. Danial Rangkar -- was arrested, police discovered dozens of similarly stolen gadgets that would have ultimately made their way to his (now disabled) eBay account. Too bad Mr. Wronged didn't get a chance to leave feedback. To right that wrong, we'll take this opportunity to return harmony to the universe:

Fast delivery. Product is great ... just like when it was stolen from my car. Do not use. F minus!

[Via Fark]

[matt @ Jan 8th 2007 11:33PM]

That's hilarious... but engadget... wow guys you're posting so many articles so fast! I can barely keep up -__-"

[klew @ Jan 8th 2007 11:35PM]

also sucks knowing that your stolen-and-sold item will never get returned

[Alex @ Jan 8th 2007 11:40PM]

First non-CES post since.... saturday!!!

[... @ Jan 9th 2007 6:26PM]

guys, you must remember no paypal = not good

People don't refuse paypal for no reason, it is always they they scamed someone and got their account frozen or that they don't want to give the buyers any chance to get their money back.

But Mr. Bad had it coming, he forgot the first 3 rules of selling stolen goods; don't use your real name, wait a while before selling it, and remove the serial number! At least he remembered to not use paypal and to not do the sale in person...

[Jason @ Jan 9th 2007 7:58PM]

"guys, you must remember no paypal = not good

People don't refuse paypal for no reason, it is always they they scamed someone and got their account frozen or that they don't want to give the buyers any chance to get their money back."

This isn't always true. PayPal has burned a number of honest people by freezing the funds in their account for no particular reason (Google "paypal sucks" for examples).

[Peter Beckman @ Jan 9th 2007 12:00AM]

That's awesome. I gotta start laser etching my gadgets so if they get stolen I can find them again on ebay.

[Kyle @ Jan 9th 2007 12:13AM]

Now, I feel horrible, I swear on my life that I just bought a lovely Garmin C340 (should have known it was stolen when it came with a generic razr charger as the car adapter and no software) From a one Daniel Rnagkar, literally less than a week ago. I thought this deal was too good to be true, but what are the odds!! ebay item: 320065449979

[Anthony @ Jan 9th 2007 12:44AM]

So, Kyle, can you explain where "fungmaninc" comes from? I've already come up w/ many spore/mycology related possibilities.

This one's good, but not as good as the stolen Sidekick II from earlier this summer.

http://www.evanwashere.com/StolenSidekick/Original/

(Sorry- couldn't find the Engadget mention).

[Mike @ Jan 9th 2007 1:28AM]

Stolen sidekick page is nothing but broken links, thanks anyway.

[Kyle @ Jan 9th 2007 12:50AM]

FungMan is a nickname of mine, and eh...I will leave it to you as to how I may have ended up with such a nickname

[baz @ Jan 9th 2007 11:14AM]

A guy I work with got his GPS stolen. Did not even know until his mom got a call form some guy. Turns out the TomTom stored his address book from his phone in it. The guy bought a "new" unit on ebay. When he discoverd it was used he suspected it was stolen and called the phone number in the GPS. May have even been the same ebay who sold it as this guy in the story. The selers info was forwareded to the FBI (interstate sale is federal)

[EvanWasHere @ Jan 9th 2007 12:53PM]

Um..it's broken links because the Myspace pages were removed by those users back in June. Besides, the link should point to http://www.evanwashere.com/StolenSidekick. Much easier to read story line there. And if you don't feel like reading, u can watch me on 20/20 Feb 9th.

Thanx for remembering my 5 min of internet fame.
Evan

[TIME4ACHANGE @ Jan 10th 2007 1:29AM]

I to believe I have been wrongly suspended from eBay after 5 years of selling, a 99.6 feedback rating and over 2000+ feedbacks...I was upset at first and did everything I could to get off suspension (they told me 7 days) I sent an appeal and they replied I would be suspended for the full 7 days, but, they looked forward to having me back...a day later I went to try and log on and now it says I am suspended Indefinitely! I never received an email that said I was suspended indefinitely and never took any further actions to jeopardize my account such as trying to set up a new one under another name etc...In addition, the original email I got both on eBay’s site and in my inbox is gone! I never deleted these! Can someone tell me what happened to them? As par for the course, I have emailed numerous times and no one gets back to me…24-48 hours response time…what a joke…I won’t hold my breath! I believe that everything happens for a reason and because of this I did some searching and found this wonderful up and coming auction site that has tons of GREAT listings on it...I might suggest this as a new avenue for sales for anyone sick of eBay, wants to try another avenue or save a few bucks on the sky high listing fees they are currently paying http://www.tazbar.com/Default.aspx They also have top of the line security features in place to avoid as much fraud as possible before it happens, unlike eBay who is always a day late…tries to play “clean-up” only after thousands of complaints. In addition click this link to read more about this up and coming auction site that is going to TAKE EBAY BY STORM...http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2006/11/13/tazbar-auctions-seeks-to-challenge-ebays-dominant-market-positi/# This site is worth the shot considering they have FREE listing fees and charge bear minimum for final value fees. The site is so much easier to navigate and when I asked them a question, their response was almost immediate! The only hang-up people in the US may have is this site is located in England, but to me that makes no difference when you are dealing with the time zone issues or the WORLD WIDE WEB since it is a 24/7 operation...As far as I am concerned it doesn’t matter if Bay is located in Tim-Buck-Two with the way they run their customer service…you have no “real” way to contact a live person if there is a problem, no matter what time it is or where you are located! I am posting this comment and the links on every discussion board that mentions eBay (good or bad) that I can find! In addition, I am sending an email to every person I have ever had any dealings with on eBay. (I have all addresses saved.) After hours of research and discovering all the sneaky things eBay does to ALL their users…(Don’t think you are an exception…once you have an ID and have signed their agreement, they watch your every move, even if you are not logged on to their site. They do this VIA spying email links, putting spy ware and cookies on your PC and watching your IP so they can see what you are up too at any given moment.) That is, with the exception of some Powersellers…eBay would never want to lose their listing and final value fees, this is their bread and butter! Basically they (the large volume PS’s) have Carte Blanc and can “screw” customers cause they know eBay won’t touch them. eBay needs a little run for their money and to possibly be regulated like the government did to the Bell Companies years ago...think about how expensive telephone service would be right now if they never broke up MA Bell into a bunch of smaller companies which paved the way for competition and lower rates! There would be NO competition and they could charge whatever they wanted (humm, sound familiar?) (Just take a look at Long Distance rates now as to what they were even 10 years ago…you can now get it for free!) As for eBay, they just keep charging…as a matter if fact, eBay just announced yet another rate hike on their listing fees that will go into effect at the end of this month (Jan 2007)...Bet you any money Paypal will follow suit shortly after with a fee increase since they are wholly owned by eBay...They have to do something to increase their profits (LOL!)
Living in the Omaha area, I see what they are doing with all of the extra money they freeze (steal) from their users. Their offices are located in a town near me, just right off I-80 and you should see all the "stuff" they offer for their employees on this “Beautiful Campus.” (Watch Out Google!) Believe me, it is a compound, not the small office building that they initially had when they opened up their corporate office. The Paypal Headquarters now boasts an outside basketball court, health club facility, sand volleyball court, small lake and who knows what else! (You can see all this when driving by) So in case you are wondering why no one gets back to you at eBay and Paypal it’s not do to a large caseload or because the employees are too busy working. It’s because they are out "playing" with all the toys that YOU paid for!
All in all, even if eBay decides to "forgive" me for something I was wrongly accused of, I think I am moving my online auction business regardless! PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE Pass the word around www.tazbar.com After all, word of mouth is how eBay got started, although I think they may have forgot where they came from! It's a New Year...I think it is time for a NEW change!!

[Minkis @ Jan 13th 2007 12:09AM]

I had a garmin c340 stolen from the same area this guy was selling from....I still have the serial number and I'm hoping to recover it.