How Low Can You Go Dept: Amazon makes selling easy, but one man took it too far when he began stealing library books and then selling them on Amazon. According to the Times Argus:
"Northfield Police arrested Rory Matthews, 23, for grand larceny on Wednesday after a lengthy interview. According to police, Matthews admitted to entering Norwich University sometime after midnight on Feb. 16, 2005, removing a quantity of books and transporting them to his house in Johnson. Matthews told police he sold the books on the Internet to Amazon.com. Officers said they discovered more than 200 books had been sold on the Internet and that 98 books were still advertised on his Web site. Matthews admitted to taking additional books from Johnson State College, The Johnson Library and Newport and Morrisville branches of the Community College of Vermont.
"Investigation into Matthews's financial records revealed that since Jan. 31, 2005, Matthews had received $4,246.88 from the sale of books through his Amazon account. Police said Matthews agreed to turn over the remaining books, which were stored at his home in Johnson." Source: Times Argus via TechDirt
LillyT, it is neither outrageous nor unprecidented.
Have you asked your public library how they deaccession material? There really isn't any logic to the process.
Nicholsen Baker wrote a seminal essay on the decimation of the library system about three years ago.
In any event, this guy has been caught. He will be prosecuted.
BUT, he has given every (smart) librarian out there a new way to deal with deaccessioned materials - EBAY & Amazon.
FWIW, he could have pulled this off if he had only examined a few deaccessioned books, stolen (or, duplicated) one of the stamps, and "deaccessioned" the books he stole and then sold.
Oh well, most crime (aside from click fraud) is a practical IQ test. The bright ones can go on forever and the stupid ones get caught.
Several university lads here did the same thing quite recently. They liberated several one-of-a-kind items (among them was a first edition of Darwins "Origin of species"(published in 1859) and several -original- Audubon sketches).... They overpowered a special access librarian and took the items by force. The idiots then trekked to Christie's in Manhattan to "auction off" the items. That is where they were immediately detained owing to the fact that the library that they stole the items from immediately sent out a list to law enforcement databases. Fortunately, Christie's appears to subscribe to that database as do most auction houses and "legal" reseller companies. The stolen items were recovered with no damages, and most institutions that store these types of collections are now re-appraising their security in light of this theft. Pretty soon now, the only way you'll ever see these items will be third party reproductions from originals kept in bank vaults. Just for kickers, the items that were stolen here had a value of +500k and they were far less in bulk than a paper grocery bag could hold.
This got me thinking...I wonder how much stolen stuff shows up on eBay and Amazon all the time? You don't have to steal from a library when your neighbor's golf bag is in plain sight. Did we just create a great platform for fencing stolen goods?
Where have you been? Oh, yeah - out in that boat trying to game thr Google ads...
Try real hard to reach the EBAY legal department... That is a real accomplishment.
I've represented people sold "remaindered" or 1-version back copies of apps that are supposed to be 100% legit and available for upgrade.
They turn out to be just pirated copies ($400.00 for 1 version back Photoshop - and EBAY takes their cut and directs the complains to their "terms of use")
Fencing stolenj goods - possibly.
Selling pirated software - like nobody's business.
Oh-h-h-h--If you just knew the rest of this man's actions, you would agree with LillyT. He has never really worked, from 1999-2003 he attended all those colleges he stole books from (has not earned a single degree, 1 college had to send bill to a collection agency as he couldn't be bothered to file for financial aid, he flunked that whole semester, lied to everyone), has no friends, met a girl on the internet, moved in with her 2 weeks later, married her 5 months later (she is the brains and organization behind this particular crime). He has gotten out of other crimes, his mother collected 35thousand dollars from Quebec government over 9 years (yes, he is Canadian) for child welfare, while she was also collecting over 60thousand from his father (who lives in US). She did get caught and is now working to pay it back. She never worked a day in her life before that. He is an only child and his parents have gotten him out of many legal problems. He expects to get out of this one also. He is callous and cruel. He has abused animals, his elderly grandmother, his father and others. He is unable to hold a job or sustain a real relationship. He and his mother expect his father to support him for the rest of his life. Laws do not apply to him and he considers police to be the bad guys. Needs intensive, inpatient mental health care, but refuses it. 2 people who had dealings with him have compared him to Scott Peterson. It just goes on and on.
Oh-h-h-h--If you just knew the rest of this man's actions, you would agree with LillyT. He has never really worked, from 1999-2003 he attended all those colleges he stole books from (has not earned a single degree, 1 college had to send bill to a collection agency as he couldn't be bothered to file for financial aid, he flunked that whole semester, lied to everyone), has no friends, met a girl on the internet, moved in with her 2 weeks later, married her 5 months later (she is the brains and organization behind this particular crime). He has gotten out of other crimes, his mother collected 35thousand dollars from Quebec government over 9 years (yes, he is Canadian) for child welfare, while she was also collecting over 60thousand from his father (who lives in US). She did get caught and is now working to pay it back. She never worked a day in her life before that. He is an only child and his parents have gotten him out of many legal problems. He expects to get out of this one also. He is callous and cruel. He has abused animals, his elderly grandmother, his father and others. He is unable to hold a job or sustain a real relationship. He and his mother expect his father to support him for the rest of his life. Laws do not apply to him and he considers police to be the bad guys. Needs intensive, inpatient mental health care, but refuses it. 2 people who had dealings with him have compared him to Scott Peterson. It just goes on and on.
Uh...this last bit seems a bit more personal and hard to follow so not sure how to respond. I would suggest as we suggest to everyone here that you should A) identify yourself and b) be nice. Other than that, thanks for stopping by and posting a comment.
How Low Can You Go Dept: Amazon makes selling easy, but one man took it too far when he began stealing library books and then