a58r(at)verizon.net
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 Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 6:08 pm Post subject: newe aka Stolen Radios |
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I first heard about the stolen/switched radio scam in '65 when it first(?) occurred at VNY when i was tied down there. Later i wrote about it in one of my columns in sometime after '93 in Aviation Digest. later, in my book Flying Tales...it appeared again in Chapter 3, "Scam Ciy:"
Some years back at a Major West Coast airport there appeared a most clever radio theft ring. It was a "steal-to-order" caper wherein the buyer actually put in an order for a certain radio, and waited a few days for delivery. This in itself was not unknown in the heisting world—cars and TVS had long been "pro-stolen." But this scam had a twist that helped keep it going for all too long, making it almost unsolvabte. In those days we had just a few radios; Mark 12s and KX-150s were the popular models, and the ones everyone liked, whether they owned one or not.
On a sunny weekend day we find a kindly "father" walking about the tie downs with a little boy, ostensibly his son. Quality time. Father asks son if he'd like to be held up to look in the cabin. You betcha, dad. Both feast their eyes on the instrumentation, with old dad glomming the radios. As in computer programming: Repeat, Repeat.
Later: a customer stops in a nearby bar and asks the friendly landlord whether he has any Hudepohl, or another odd-sounding beer. "Only by the case, and takes a week for special orders. Twenty bucks deposit." Customer returns in a week. Barkeep gets a folded twenty, with several more inside. Says it's in the back room, too busy to bring it out. Customer says he's parked in back and will just haul it out that way. Guess what fits in a box the size of a case of beer?
Back to good old dad. It's late at night in an unlit tie down area. Using one of the famous four keys that unlock all single engine Cessnas, Dad is in and out in a flash, radio in hand. Does he scoot home, or to the friendly barkeep with his new-found booty? Nah. He hits the next plane having an identical radio, one worn about the same around the channel selector knobs. And what now? He pulls the second radio, replacing it with the first stolen set.
Owner no.1 Immediately reports his theft to the police, his insurance carrier, maybe the local radio shop. Nothing is heard of this missing radio for many months until owner no. 2 has the usual vacuum tube failure and gets the shop to pull his radio for repair. By this time there is a large list of stolen radios that has been furnished to most all shops, and no 2's radio made the hit parade. He's in deep yogurt for possession of stolen property! Wisely, he had recorded the serial number of his (original) radio, which helped a bit. but "his" radio under repair was confiscated, leaving him outa commission. He then reported his "original" radio, with his recorded SN, as stolen.
Fortunately John Law was finally able to figure out this caper, but only after many radios were stolen. And there always was a shop that conveniently didn't check the SNs.
regards,
Bob N. FireFly 070 Old Kolb
http://www.angelfire.com/rpg/ronoy/
do not archive
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