Beware someone trying to trade a Direware in Glendale Arizona

Scurvy092

Scurvy092

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Jim Skelton just got scammed out of a Coye Whiskey. He was trading for a Direware to Killian Jones in Glendale, AZ (instagram name exiled_ronin). The guy send him an empty box with $40 and a note that said Thanks for the knife. Another person came forward and said the guy offered him the same knife but he backed out because it seemed sketchy.

Here are the relevant links:

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http://instagram.com/p/rvEwQSS2u8/?modal=true

http://instagram.com/p/rvHeJfy2jO/?modal=true
 
Wow. That is terrible. And the absolute gall of this dude. Writing a note? That tells me flat out that this piece of trash has done this to others.
 
Knifein, ease up. You aren't helping by raising the temperature of this forum. We understand what's right and what's wrong, and calling in the mob is wrong.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
Knifein, ease up. You aren't helping by raising the temperature of this forum. We understand what's right and what's wrong, and calling in the mob is wrong.
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You're right, I apologize. Hopefully this helps the situation:

I took the liberty of doing a little detective work with the address Mr. Skelton provided. Unfortunately it seems like the house it was shipped to is abandoned. Here is a screenshot I took off of google streetview. The picture is from April 2013. Notice the wooden gate is almost torn down?

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Now here is a picture of the house from March 2008. Notice how everything looks well taken care of?

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My conclusion is that the thief lives on this very street and obviously knew that the house is vacant and therefore had the knife shipped to it where there can be absolutely no record of anyone currently living inside. It has to be someone who lives on that particular street though. I know this because someone who lives on that same street obviously has to drive by the vacant house everyday in order to know it was vacant in the first place. That or maybe the house belonged to a friend or relative to the thief who moved out.
 
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Can someone who has an Instagram account please forward the information I have gathered to Mr. Skelton? I hope it could become of use to him.

EDIT TO ADD: The first picture that is the current one on Google streetview is over a year old. So, there could always be the slightest possibility that someone moved in to that house within the last year but I highly doubt it. If the thief had the smallest ounce of common sense he certainly would not have the knife shipped to his own address. Who knows though? I reckon it's still worth investigating further into.
 
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Yeah Jim has a lot of info regarding the house. It belonged to someone deceased. Everyone needs to be aware of this guy as he is still making trade offers as late as of today. Some people almost got caught today by the scammer. I will forward this URL to him
 
Pellel2 said:
Yeah Jim has a lot of info regarding the house. It belonged to someone deceased. Everyone needs to be aware of this guy as he is still making trade offers as late as of today. Some people almost got caught today by the scammer. I will forward this URL to him
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I knew it! It either has to be someone who lives in that very same small block or a friend/relative of the deceased former owner of the house who knew the address.

I hope Jim uses all his resources to the maximum extent to catch this guy. I would hate to see a thieving bottom feeder like this get away with it. The fact that he sent $40 and the thank you note indicates that he is some sadistic a hole who takes pleasure in scamming people and sees it as a funny game.

By the way thanks for forwarding the message to him. I just saw your post on his IT page. Too bad in the end my meager research didn't really help much lol.
 
Wow. Any chance of getting prints off the box interior/note/bills? Definitely file the appropriate reports with the police and postal inspectors. This sucks for sure.

I've been burned before like this. Trading high end paintball markers a kid shipped me a box of tissues instead of a Bob Long he was supposed to be trading me. Luckily I was able to get hold of his parents and get things settled. A good way to safeguard yourself when dealing with people you don't know is to use signature confirmation but also to restrict delivery to the name the other party gives you. That way the package can only be signed for by the person who can present an i.d. that matches the name they've given you. I think this option adds like $5 to the charges but when you're trading $1000 knives the extra security is worth it. At least that way there's a much slimmer chNce of them giving you a fake/untraceable name.

I sure hope something can be done to nail this bozo before he burns someone else. To the victim, don't give up. File as many reports as you can with as many people (leo, postal, etc) as you can. And good luck.
 
Just took a drive over there, the place is almost certainly vacant. That left portion of the fence is now completely knocked over and the yard is still a mess. No cars or hints that anyone might live or be there.
Its a very poor area with rows of rundown trailer homes. My gut says its one of the neighbors but who knows.
I hope they can track this scumbag down.
 
spketch said:
Just took a drive over there, the place is almost certainly vacant. That left portion of the fence is now completely knocked over and the yard is still a mess. No cars or hints that anyone might live or be there.
Its a very poor area with rows of rundown trailer homes. My gut says its one of the neighbors but who knows.
I hope they can track this scumbag down.
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Wow! Not blowin' smoke, but this is what community is all about! Spketch, you're the man! In my line of work, I get real disappointed in mankind as a whole, it's the little things like that, remind me the world ain't as messed up as it sometimes seems!:thumbup:
 
spketch said:
My gut says its one of the neighbors but who knows.
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That's what mine tells me as well. I outlined a picture of the whole block with all the houses adjacent to each other upon the street. My gut tells me the thief lives in one of those houses since someone who knows that certain house was vacant obviously has to drive up and down the same street every day.

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This makes me sick. He knows what he's doing is wrong otherwise he wouldn't put the 40 and the thank you in as a little pat on the back type thing. If I lived around there I'd drive by and do some investigating.

Do a trade with him at the same location but I'd just send a box of tissue and then sit and eyeball the house to see who picks up the package.
 
Knifein said:
That's what mine tells me as well. I outlined a picture of the whole block with all the houses adjacent to each other upon the street. My gut tells me the thief lives in one of those houses since someone who knows that certain house was vacant obviously has to drive up and down the same street every day.

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Based on this map, anyone who has done any trades or sales here on Bladeforums or any knife site should see if they dealt with anyone who lives On Rose Garden Lane, W Ross Ave, or W Quail Ave in Glendale Arizona. You are right the scammer probably lives on one of these 3 streets.
 
ShepardCC said:
This makes me sick. He knows what he's doing is wrong otherwise he wouldn't put the 40 and the thank you in as a little pat on the back type thing. If I lived around there I'd drive by and do some investigating.

Do a trade with him at the same location but I'd just send a box of tissue and then sit and eyeball the house to see who picks up the package.
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Honestly, this would be my advice, however I understand that this course of action would have some pretty serious issues:

1. The person would need to be a local, and would need to be someone who was prepared to spend several hours observing this house.
2. It's 2014, and this isn't an '80's cop movie. The scumbag would almost certainly be instantly aware of someone sitting in a car where they weren't supposed to be. So, the person who was observing that spot in order to see who got the mail would almost certainly need to be doing it from a hidden position in which they couldn't be seen by this toolbox just coming down the street, stopping at the mailbox and grabbing the goods.
3. Which brings up another problem. Say it's someone that lives a few streets over. There's a chance you'd have to tail the guy to where he ACTUALLY lives, in order to get the address. You might be seen, and this guy might possibly decide to confront you. So, suddenly this goes from tailing a punk-ass thief to possibly having a self-defense situation arise. In which case, the cops won't look kindly on you, because personal property isn't worth a possibly violent personal confrontation.

So, sadly, there's a level of effort here that really puts it out of the realm of good common sense for someone who's not Jim to execute. Now, if I had been rooked for that knife, I would have no problem doing any of the above, merely because I had a personal stake in the situation. But, if I were a local and someone else here had had this happen in my area, I have to say that no, I wouldn't expend a level of effort that could possibly see me in a face to face altercation/confrontation with the thief trying to help the nonlocal member who got scammed. There'd be no way I could justify it.
 
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Another issue might be that you might be observed while in hiding by someone else who lives on that street, and the next thing you know, a cop car screams up to the house across the street where you're hiding in the bushes or whatever, and you're arrested on the spot. The thief would get clean away, and most likely, once he got the box full of no knife, he'd know that people were actively trying to trap him and would simply shift his mailing address to somewhere else. There's no shortage of empty houses in decent sized urban/suburban areas these days.
 
Doesn't seem like the type of neighborhood where folks call the cops, more likely they'd confront you. Guns are readily available in Arizona and no license is needed for concealed carry...
Petty thieves are usually stupid, and often continue with their MO until they get caught. Best thing is for Jim to file a report with the police and/or post office and let the authorities handle it.
This loser will get what's coming to him eventually.
 
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