This listing on ebay is closed now, but I'm intrigued by it:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/130762381631
Wouldn't you try to find the owner, and maybe he did, but couldn't you give Leica the serial number and they'd tell you who the owner was?
wow! yeah, looks like a property owner "found" it operating on their land and took it to me. pretty crappy, but that's how people get. I've left a job for an emergency and forgotten to pick up a base before. Luckily, this property owner wasn't around to confiscate my equipment. Actually was in a "bad part" of town, but it was still sitting there on my tripod when I went back to get it.
I would not purchase anything on Ebay without running a serial number check. I know you can report stolen serial numbers to Leica. I am sure other manufacturers have a process for tracking this as well. If the serial number has been reported to Leica as stolen the unit will be banned from an firmware upgrades and repairs from a Leica authorized repair shop. The original owner will also be contacted if the stolen unit is submitted to Leica for any Service requests.
Leica has a feature on all of its current products for a PIN code. If you cannot enter the correct PIN the instrument will lock itself from use until a master-unlock code is entered. I kind of hesitate using the PIN codes in case someone forgets the PIN and the instrument might get locked on a job site. Still a good feature and most insurance companies will give the owner a reduced rate if the equipment has this feature.
"Found" it on their land with no batteries or cables. Hmmm.
Reminds me...
Last year, one of my faithful employees left the base station (in its pelican case) on the tailgate, and drove away. Many miles later they noticed the GPS was gone. They spent the rest of the day looking for it, then nervously returned to the office.
In the meantime a good Samaritan, found the GPS base unit, actually knew what it was, called Javad to search for the owner via serial #, and called to let me know he retrieved it.
I let the crew sweat it for a few hours, before telling them a gentleman called about it (from Syracuse...2 hours away). I made the crew chief go pick up the base station at 10 PM on his own time.
We lucked out on that one...I paid the guy $500 for being honest.
SOLD
for $2,500
-JD-
"Found" is a euphemism for "I stole it".
> This listing on ebay is closed now, but I'm intrigued by it:
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/130762381631
>
> Wouldn't you try to find the owner, and maybe he did, but couldn't you give Leica the serial number and they'd tell you who the owner was?