NZGuitars.com

Kev77 wrote:I purchased an amp on trademe last year. From a cash converters on trademe.
My dream amp actually - a Goodsell super seventeen and just had a feeling it may be hot.
I couldn't deal with maybe having someone else's stolen dream amp so I went to see RYAN at the Ampshop . And sure enough it was stolen. I called the police and waited.

I was fortunate enough to get my purchase price back, and the police collected the amp.
the Original owner has his baby back, and in the big picture it felt like the right thing to do.
But dam, what an amp.
I really hope your parts guitar guy has the same perspective.

We are gonna dind out. I just contacted the dude and made my claim. Lets see how we go.

ToneLoungeMatt wrote:
We are gonna dind out. I just contacted the dude and made my claim. Lets see how we go.

Wonder how many times it's changed hands since it was stolen. Would that make any difference legally speaking?

I asked the dude how he got it and he said he bought it on TradeMe 4 - 5 years ago which adds up time wise. Only question for me now is he telling the truth.

Molly wrote:

ToneLoungeMatt wrote:
We are gonna dind out. I just contacted the dude and made my claim. Lets see how we go.

Wonder how many times it's changed hands since it was stolen. Would that make any difference legally speaking?

No.

I have a hard ass attitude to this but it cuts both ways. There is a bunch of gear out there that is mine and if I ever find it, I will have it back.
Conversely, there was a time when I suspected my Strat might be stolen. I was told this by my friend Kerry Adams of Go West Music who sold it to the person who had it stolen from them. He had lost contact and suspect they had moved to Aussie. I asked him for contact details if he ever ran into them again.

Couple of years ago, a story emerged of the Uncle of one of our members who had lost a Strat like mine. (Only 3 were ever oficially imported into NZ) Resigning myself to the loss of a $2000 guitar I PM'd him and asked for his uncle to send me the serial number. On these Strats, it's no more than 4 digits. The number that came back wasn't even close; there was no way one could be confused with the other. Much relieved, but sad for him as well.

Trade Me leaves us vulnerable to stolen goods. If we buy and the real owner appears, we have no recourse and the original crime has proliferated. It sucks, but that's how it is.

To paraphrase NZRS Dave, boo for fucking burglars.

ToneLoungeMatt wrote:I asked the dude how he got it and he said he bought it on TradeMe 4 - 5 years ago which adds up time wise. Only question for me now is he telling the truth.

The onus of proof is still on you. Do you have the Police incident report number? A record of the serial number? (Ok, might not have one) Photographs of the guitar in your possession?
Ask the guy for the details of who he bought it from. The less willing/ able he is to do that, the more likely he is the thief and the less hesitation you need feel about applying pressure.

slowfingers wrote:

ToneLoungeMatt wrote:I asked the dude how he got it and he said he bought it on TradeMe 4 - 5 years ago which adds up time wise. Only question for me now is he telling the truth.

The onus of proof is still on you. Do you have the Police incident report number? A record of the serial number? (Ok, might not have one) Photographs of the guitar in your possession?

Ask the guy for the details of who he bought it from. The less willing/ able he is to do that, the more likely he is the thief and the less hesitation you need feel about applying pressure.

I do have the Police incident report and a full description of the guitar that I sent to them at the time it was stolen. It is 100% customized so there is no way he could pass it off as a factory model. It was stolen just days after I installed a new neck on it so do not have photos or serial number which is a bit shit but thats how the world works.

I have asked for the listing number from when he bought it and will see if he can produce it. If not, chances are he pinched it / got it off someone he did.

He mentioned that he recently took the pick-guard off and found out the pickups where 62 re issues. It wouldn't have been hard to work out because I wrote a note and put it in the pick-guard cavity for my own reference. I mentioned that to him so if he is an honest person that will be all he needs as proof.

In actual fact only one of the pickups is a 57/62. I changed the other ones for a bit of diversity but stuck the note back in for shits and giggles.

When we were burgled they pretty much cleared us out but there were only two things that had any sentimental value and this is one of them. If it was just a guitar I probably wouldn't bother but I really don't want some arse wipe to benefit from my work.

Just heard back from the dude. Sounds like a young fellow and so far honest. He found my note in the guitar and took that as a pretty sure sign that it was mine.

Awww man... I feel sorry for both of you now

sirvill wrote:Awww man... I feel sorry for both of you now

Yeah; it's a shit sandwich all round. But it's Matt's guitar. End of story.

Good luck getting the police to act. A couple of years ago we were burgled and lost $30,000 worth of stuff. The idiots made the mistake of using my TradeMe account to ask questions about a rental property (obviously the laptop they stole from me logged them straight in as me). I contacted TradeMe to help trace the IP address they were using it from. They said they were happy to help but would only give the details to the police. I gave the contact details of the person at TM to the police but they never got hold of her!

A couple of weeks went by without the police showing any interest, so I got hold of the Real Estate office one of the burglars were communicating with and explained the situation. Through them I managed to get the name, address and phone number a woman, presumably the thief's Mrs. I even looked her up on Facebook and got a picture of the ugly trollop. I took all this to the police and, even though they looked stunned and surprised that I had been so successful in my detective work (and probably a bit embarrassed), they still did nothing!

Luckily the insurance company didn't dick us around like the police did and we managed to get all our stuff replaced, but I never did get back all the photos I lost and the music I had created

slowfingers wrote:

sirvill wrote:Awww man... I feel sorry for both of you now

Yeah; it's a shit sandwich all round. But it's Matt's guitar. End of story.

Haha. You are a hard man mate.

slowfingers wrote:Trade me leaves us vulnerable to stolen goods. If we buy and the real owner appears, we have no recourse and the original crime has proliferated. It sucks, but that's how it is.

I'd still want to be certain I wasn't being scammed.

If someone claimed ownership of one of my guitars they'd better have some indisputable evidence. I'd want pictures / evidence of purchase, details of the burglary / report to the cops containing a reference to that very guitar, some kind of assurance he hadn't already been reimbursed by an insurance company (meaning the guitar was no longer his anyway but the property of the insurance company). If the guy's claim was genuine he'd get it back.

Molly wrote:

slowfingers wrote:Trade me leaves us vulnerable to stolen goods. If we buy and the real owner appears, we have no recourse and the original crime has proliferated. It sucks, but that's how it is.

I'd still want to be certain I wasn't being scammed.

If someone claimed ownership of one of my guitars they'd better have some indisputable evidence. I'd want pictures / evidence of purchase, details of the burglary / report to the cops containing a reference to that very guitar, some kind of assurance he hadn't already been reimbursed by an insurance company (meaning the guitar was no longer his anyway but the property of the insurance company). If the guy's claim was genuine he'd get it back.

Exactly!

I found some of this thread quite confusing. Molly and Slowy seemed to be having an argument while, at the same time, making exactly the same point...

Best of luck, Matt! Hope it all works out for you.