I'm looking at buying a used robot from someone who is not a surveyor and he doesn't have a receipt. Planning to at least have the local Trimble dealer look it over before I buy, but is there anyway to know it's not stolen?
Sent from my XT1031 using Tapatalk
RPLS#, post: 402752, member: 12280 wrote: but is there anyway to know it's not stolen?
Give your Local Trimble Dealer the serial number and have him check to see if it's been reported as stolen.
Unless whoever had the instrument stolen reports it to Trimble, you won't.
You could check with the local cops, but it could have come from anywhere. Good luck!
Be careful.
In 2006, I was preparing to bid on a Leica TCRA1102 that was listed on Ebay by an Atlanta pawn store. I requested and received serial numbers from the store owner through Ebay. I took the numbers to my local Leica dealer, Florida Level and Transit, in Jacksonville. They checked the numbers both through the Leica company system, and through the National Police Database. The numbers came up clean.
I ended up the successful bidder at $10,800. I was still unsure whether the pawn store had provided the real serial numbers, so I obtained a cashiers check and notified the pawn store I would be picking up the equipment in person. I drove to Atlanta, and before I turned over the check I requested the opportunity to inspect the instrument. The instrument looked fine, but equally important I was able to verify the serial numbers I was given over the internet did in fact match the serial numbers of the instrument. I felt I had done my due diligence, the instrument passed muster, I turned over the check, and brought the instrument with me back to Florida.
That was just the beginning of my sad experience.
Long-story-short...it happened that a survey company in Gwinnett County (adjacent to Atlanta) had lost the instrument via theft. But, instead of reporting the ÛÏoldÛ Leica instrument theft to their insurance company (and the Gwinnett County Police Department) they instead reported their brand new Leica TCRP1202 had been stolen. In their report to GCPD and to Hartford Insurance, they listed the newer TCRP1202, and the TCRP1202 serial numbers. So, when the police entered the serial numbers into the National Police Database, the input serial numbers were the actual numbers of the new TCRP1202, and not the stolen old TCRA1102 I had paid $10,800 for.
Of course none of the above was discovered in time to help me. I was now the owner of an old ÛÏhotÛ Leica TCRA1102 in spite of everything I had done to protect myself, and I now had Hartford Insurance lawyers coming after me. It happened that during the Ebay auction, one of the field employees of the survey company recognized the instrument from pictures shown on Ebay. This employee notified GCPD. However, due to the company having ÛÏmistakenlyÛreported the wrong instrument stolen, it took some time to sort everything out. It ended up GCPD contacted the Atlanta Police Department, who then went to the pawn store to take possession of the instrument until everything had been sorted out. It was too late of course, because I was now surveying with the instrument in Florida.
The next step (this was now over a month later after the auction had ended) was an Atlanta Police Department detective contacting the police in my Florida home town. Through the police I requested a description of the supposedly lost instrument, but everything I was being given related to a new TCRP1202, which I knew I did not have. Over a year later I was sued by Hartford Insurance for the new Leica TCRP1202 (which had serial numbers that were foreign to anything I had). I hired an attorney to file an answer to the lawsuit denying I had anything that matched the description of the item being sought.
Three years later (and after the courts/lawyers sorted out the serial number/equipment description issues), the case ended with my being forced to turn over the instrument to Hartford Insurance lawyers. I was out the $10,800 paid the pawn store, the instrument, and several thousand dollars paid my attorney. I was advised that it would cost me thousands more dollars to chase after someone in order to be made whole.
Sounds like the people who lost it committed insurance fraud. I guess they "accidentally" reported the newer, more expensive one being stolen so they could get a replacement from the insurance company. They sound like a bunch of scammers to me, and then they didn't back off or correct the issue when you were getting screwed......what a bunch of d*cks.
RPLS#, post: 402752, member: 12280 wrote: I'm looking at buying a used robot from someone who is not a surveyor and he doesn't have a receipt. Planning to at least have the local Trimble dealer look it over before I buy, but is there anyway to know it's not stolen?
Sent from my XT1031 using Tapatalk
we had a S6 stolen last year in San Antonio- where you at?
Don't.
Unless he or she has an extremely compelling story about how they acquired it.
eBay policies were different in 2006, but these days you can see if an item is covered by the eBay guarantee. The cost should have landed on the seller who misrepresented the item as not stolen. It would have been up to the pawn shop, not you, to try and collect from the fraudulent owner.
Jim Frame, post: 402930, member: 10 wrote: eBay policies were different in 2006, but these days you can see if an item is covered by the eBay guarantee. The cost should have landed on the seller who misrepresented the item as not stolen. It would have been up to the pawn shop, not you, to try and collect from the fraudulent owner.
My lawyer checked, and said to forget about ever recovering my money. For one thing he said you would have to hire a Georgia lawyer to depose the pawn store to find/learn if they had assets that were exposed, etc. He said I would/could waste a significant amount of money, and not end up with anything. Also, he thought it not very likely you would be able to sue the survey company...trying to prove intent, etc.
I. Ben Havin, post: 402985, member: 6834 wrote: My lawyer checked, and said to forget about ever recovering my money.
As noted, things were different in 2006, but today eBay's money-back guarantee might have allowed you to recover your money if you paid with PayPal. Once they determine that the seller didn't deliver what he said he would deliver -- and stolen goods would seem to fit that definition -- they refund your money and go after the seller. I'm not certain it would have worked -- I haven't read the fine print -- but it looks pretty good. My point is that buying big-ticket items on eBay needn't be very risky.
The state of Florida has a stolen Item registry for pawn shops. Might be able to have a search done by the local Sheriffs office. That's if your state is the same as Florida.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
RAGOODWIN, post: 402914, member: 490 wrote: we had a S6 stolen last year in San Antonio- where you at?
Its in Houston. I decided not to buy it, but here is the listing: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Trimble-S6-3-Dr-Plus-Robotic-Total-Station-Kit-TSC3-MT1000-Best-Deal-/122211006219?hash=item1c7457f70b:g:1SwAAOSwuzRXfAzt
Second-Generation, post: 403929, member: 1477 wrote: The state of Florida has a stolen Item registry for pawn shops. Might be able to have a search done by the local Sheriffs office. That's if your state is the same as Florida.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Yes...also, in Georgia a pawn store is required to report serial numbers of items, at the time they receive such item, to the local police (Atlanta Police Department in this particular instance). The item is required to be kept out of view of the public for a period of time (30? or 45? days or something like that). This is to give the police time to be on the look out to see if the particular serial number turns up on their national data base. Then, if at anytime (during the "hold" period) the serial number turns up in the database, a cop is dispatched to go fetch the item. However, in my case since the "real" serial numbers had not been provided to the police there was no way for the police to cross check for the instrument before I had already paid for it and brought it back to Florida. Hence no cop had been dispatched to go pick up the item from the pawn store before I concluded my transaction with the pawn store. The police were dispatched to go get the item, but when that occurred the item was no longer there. When I was at the pawn store the owner told me he had held the instrument for about 2 months before bringing it out of the back holding area and displaying in the front of the store. I just wish he had told me about Willie Jones pawning the instrument for $125 (that might have been a clue...I only learned this from insurance lawyers)!
ibenhavin
RPLS#, post: 404012, member: 12280 wrote: Its in Houston. I decided not to buy it, but here is the listing: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Trimble-S6-3-Dr-Plus-Robotic-Total-Station-Kit-TSC3-MT1000-Best-Deal-/122211006219?hash=item1c7457f70b:g:1SwAAOSwuzRXfAzt
I've got a clean S6 kit if you are still in the market. It has a TSC2 instead of a TSC3 and also an older style prism, but the price is a few thousand less. Let me know if you'd like more info.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
