Flat-screen TV included, but it only gets The Food Channel.
Posted on 04/02/2006 7:37:38 AM PDT by DJ Taylor
SOUTH BEND -- It isn't a crime police have seen many times before.
An unsuspecting woman purchased a "flat-screen television set" at a bargain price, the package even bubble-wrapped and complete with cord and controller.
But when the street consumer returned home that February day with her "steal" of a product, she was likely steamed.
"It was actually an oven door inside the package," explained South Bend Detective Sgt. Jim Walsh.
Police on Thursday arrested a suspect they believe sold the appliance piece to the woman. Walsh says recent thefts of oven doors from vacant properties may be linked to the scam.The 42-year-old theft victim was reportedly approached by the 43-year-old suspect Feb. 20 at her job in the 1600 block of South Michigan Street. The asking price for the bogus TV screen was $500, but when the victim couldn't come up with the money, the suspect settled for $300.
The oven door was wrapped in plastic to look like a flat screen, had Wal-Mart store labels, and included a generic remote control.
"It's an elaborate job of packaging," Walsh said.
The suspect's goose was cooked on Thursday after the victim's husband spotted a vehicle and recognized it as the phony salesman's. When police officers arrested the man, they also found an oven door and packaging materials inside his trunk, according to reports.Despite the bizarre fraud, police say oven doors are an increasingly hot item in area burglaries.
Just this week two reports of stolen oven doors made their way to South Bend Police.
The first happened Saturday at a home in the 400 block of North Arthur Street when a back door was kicked in and two suspects were seen exiting the residence carrying an oven door, according to reports.
The second occurred Monday at a home in the 900 block of South Twyckenham Drive, where a back door was forced open and the oven door removed from its frame.
Walsh said police have had a total of about five recent burglaries where oven doors were among the items stolen.
"It was mostly at (vacant) rental homes," Walsh explained. "Some might not be discovered for a couple weeks."
Police have had only a couple reports of the doors being sold as flat-screen televisions, but it's likely others went unreported, the detective said.
Police continue to investigate at least two other suspects who may be disguising oven doors and selling them.
Walsh warns residents not to buy products off the street or if they do, open packages first to make sure the items are what they appear to be.
Laugh!
Anyone that buys what they HAVE to assume is stolen merchandise gets what they deserve.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
Adding insult to injury, the oven door was that puke-green color popular during the 70's.
LOL
Flat-screen TV included, but it only gets The Food Channel.
Why wasn't this lady charged with "Conspiracy to recieve stolen property", or some such?
I wonder if her reception was good?
The Food Channel and cooking shows probably came in real well.
My Frigidaire "snowboard" works pretty good, although it's a little big, heavy and square for a snowboard.
I need to get a new one. Mine is the only one in the house that doesn't work right. I can leave the other tvs on all day. This one though.... Every time I get on FR and forget about it being on , the darn thing starts smelling and smoking.
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Hmmmm...an HDTV in an oven door...this could work. |
Mine only works around dinner time...
For 300 dollars, wouldn't you make sure it works first? And then to file a report.........
An african american male called me over to his car in a busy mall parking lot...opened his trunk and showed me a brand new portable color television...all wrapped straight from the factory.
We haggled on the price and I "stole" it for $85.
Got home all excited, and unwrapped it.
It was a old B&W with all dials missing and taken right off the junk pile.
I was really angry...for about 30 seconds and then laughed.
$85 was a cheap price never having to fall for anything like that again.
I didn't know Magic Chef made TV's!
:-P back atcha
I also have access to the Dungeon Castrations and Testicle Replacements ping list and the Naked, Oily Man With Nunchucks ping list, in case you're interested.
:-)
This news is great too, but have you ever seen the news about a flying frozen sausage that broke a driver's nose?
I actually responded to one of those once. At the time, I wasn't living too far from Switzerland so I wrote back that the Swiss needed a minimum of $10,000 to open an account of that type and that I would be willing to come up with half. If he'd send me a money-order for the other half, I would handle all of the Swiss banking transactions for him.
Funny that I never heard back from him.
Oh, you mean Avocado Green. She should have specified Harvest Gold, I did.
Thanks for the laugh.
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