Short story: If you've had a Leica TS16 P 1" R500 stolen (equipment #30519256) I know where it is. It is in Melbourne, Australia.
Long story: This instrument came up for sale on Fleabay. I bought it, and got the serial numbers. MyWorld flagged it as stolen. I told the seller, who denied it. His logic was that because it turned on and booted without any pin number warnings then it can't be stolen. I reached out to Fleabay, who froze the transaction. I explained to eBay that I cannot report it stolen to them because eBay demands a police report number, and that the instrument was most likely stolen overseas then sent to Oz. Therefore, Oz police cannot issue any sort of case number. This is how the scam works.
To un-freeze the transaction, the seller (quite cleverly) sent me the "instrument" anyway, because as it turns out, sending "something" and adding the tracking number to eBay's system cancels my cancellation of sale request. What arrived at my house was a desktop usb lamp about the size of a texta or white board marker (some of you might call it a sharpie) and a hand-written note. On the back of the packaging where the return address is supposed to be was a hand-written threat to myself and my kids.
The police are now involved. I'm more than happy to have a conversation with you at my front gate with my Adler B230. But you don't go after someone's kids.
Anyway.....the instrument is in Melbourne.
Wow, this makes me want to turn on the PIN.
What would be the purpose of Myworld flagging it as stolen if they don't notify the victim and his/her insurer? Or do they? That should get action from that end, which surely would involve contacting you for your side of the story?
@norman-oklahoma I only buy on eBay when the the item is backed up by eBay's guarantee. So irrespective of anything that happened, I got my money back immediately. That probably puts me out of the loop as far as MyWorld is concerned, because I never owned the instrument or took delivery of it. As far as being contacted by MyWorld is concerned, I have been fortunate enough to never have had anything stolen, so I don't what happens there. But you would assume that MyWorld would not list something as stolen until someone (the owner or insurance company) informs them.
But we surveyors are high-value targets for thieves, so I reckon someone in this group could answer that question.
@john-putnam I've never turned mine on. Ever. I quite like the idea of making own version of the bracket that locks the instrument to the tribrach and tripod. Or some sort of screeching alarm. I would rather my equipment not get stolen in the first place. I'll get around to it someday.
I'm guessing you need to report an instrument as stolen with Leica before it makes it to MyWorld. The PIN is nice, you just have to enter it when you start the instrument. No PIN, no Captivate. If you guess wrong too many times the system is bricked as I recall. I have it activated on my CS20 but not on the instrument.
Even better, it looks like Leica has a tracking option, like LowJack, on newer instrument.
@norman-oklahoma Leica marks it as stolen when the victim reports the theft to their dealer or distributer. It's been my experience that when you buy Leica equipment that requires firmware or updates, Leica searches its database to see if the serial number is flagged as stolen.
We bought a Leice TS 16 robot that was on eBay for about half it's value. It was only a year old and came from a Police department that used it for accident reconstruction. When we called in our salesman that supplies us with equipment, he had to spend over an hour on the phone to verify with the PD that they sold it to us before Leica would activate it and give us a CCP for it.
If you don't report it as stolen to Leica, nobody knows anything about it unless there is a Police report of the theft, which you will need for your insurance company.
For my experience ebay dont care about stolen instruments, I have found a sotlen Leica P40 reported to ebay and none cares about it, the try to tell me that the dont search the legality of items! Crazy situation!
So with ebay must be very careful.