A British man successfully recovered his stolen kitchen appliances after he discovered that the burglar had put his goods up for sale on eBay.
Tristan Brooks told the Daily Mail that a week before moving into his new home, his builder had called him to say that he’d been robbed. Brooks returned to find his kitchen stripped and every major appliance gone.
The thief had taken a £700 fridge freezer, a Hotpoint electric oven and a series of BT cordless phones, the culprit took the curtains and hooks, a tool case, toaster, Brabantia bin and a shower head. The total value of the property was estimated to be around £8,000.
Police had told Brooks they had no leads, but his girlfriend suggested looking on eBay. Minutes after logging on Brooks was there, staring at virtually every valuable item that had been stolen.
Brooks said, “I logged on and all of a sudden I was staring at the screen and looking at my fridge freezer. It was being sold by somebody in Bridgend,” which is only 30 miles from where he lives in Pontcanna, Cardiff in the UK.
He arranged a time to meet the seller at his home, saying he needed to check the measurements against his kitchen and went outside to call the police who promptly arrived to arrest the suspect. Brooks was able to recover all of his belongings because he had the serial numbers for the items.
The man was arrested and released on bail but failed to appear before magistrates. There is now a warrant out for his rearrest.
Makes you wonder, if you’re an eBay frequenter that is, how much stolen stuff you’ve actually bought from the site.
Incredible.
Just an up to date way of offloading yourill gotten gins. They used to advertise in local papers classified section but who needs loca paoer when you ve got www. I reckon people who buy are just as bad as people who rob, they think that by not asking if its robbed it some how means its ok, but without them the exercise would be pointless, the more peoplewilling to turn a blind eye the more robbers there will be.
“The man was arrested and released on bail but failed to appear before magistrates”
They’ll forget about the thief in one hour – after all the police are there to protect his rights over the victim’s. It’s the unwritten ‘Go Slow’ law here in the UK.
This is an abomination. We should all live in fear for it is our own livestock that shall one day perish.
Somebody’s gonna get negative feedback! uhhh ohhhh
Not going to get a good feedback on this sale!
The same thing happened to me – found my stolen items on eBay and used 192.com to track down his address. After all that, the police did *nothing*.
Very good post, I laughed just read by title
wow that's amazing. Bet the thief thought he would never get caught.