Robbery Robbed of Rolex Day Date 40 228206 in Southern California

[jb335]

Sorry to hear, OP and wishing you the best in the process.

The same username PMd me about a watch I had for sale a couple weeks ago. Thankfully, nothing came of it since I already had a likely buyer. We never spoke on the phone he just messaged me asking what country the watch was originally sold in since he was worried about fakes from overseas. He also mentioned he lived in Lake County


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[Modiferous]

Yes jb335 , that is the same criminal.

The username he created
Ls702 was created thirteen months ago, Jan 2022.

On the other hand, for another watch I had for sale, I was contacted by a brand new username, created just days before, zero feedback, and that buyer turned out to be completely legitimate and paid full asking price for my watch via bank wire after meeting in person.

As far as this criminal, he had studied the ways and means of high end transactions, and was quite versed in the lingo: talked about how he could bank wire, claimed he banked at Chase and Bank of America, and could get a cashier's check. The deal was supposed to go down with the watch being verified and then retained at the jewelry store, and then he and I going to the bank to get his cashier's check handed to me while I was standing next to him at the teller.

Of course, obviously the guy has no money, and was just looking for an opportunity to grab the watch and run. A series of circumstances allowed him to get away with it, for now.

Originally Posted by INC

I'm very sorry to hear your story, but in the same time I'm really happy that you were not hurt!

Just a thought: There was no surveillance cameras in the shop or on the street at all? It sounds strange for me if in a place like this there were no HQ cameras installed!

Yes there was good video taken of both the robber and his vehicle.

[jb335]

I’m betting he is targeting sale listings of people that mention they are in SoCal and are open to a face to face transaction.

We both have that in common


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[jb335]

Also, you should post the serial number so it could show up in google searches as a stolen watch. If you already did, I missed it and disregard.


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[rolexgs]

right before he grabbed the watch inside the shop, did the sales people try to distract you by doing anything?

[Modiferous]

The jeweler was definitely negligent, but I don't believe they were in on it.

What happened exactly was that I got to the jeweler about ten minutes before this "Jason" character. During that time the jeweler revealed to me that the owner of the shop was out that week on an emergency and so no one was available to do the appraisal there. I texted the buyer and told him this, and said that we could discuss other options when he arrived. He did text back pretty promptly.

By the time the buyer arrived, the jeweler and I had already ruled out another shop down the street, because their appraiser too was out for the day.

The buyer arrived, and he and I and the jeweler discussed options. The buyer asked the jeweler if she would be willing to just give it a quick at least visual evaluation of the watch. At this point I was looking the buyer up and down and trying to detect some semblance of that this guy was at all a person of means. His coat was shabby, his pants were nothing special, and his shoes were worn. Plus he reeked of marijuana, which right then and there I would have shut him down would it not for his story about being in ttheeh cannabis business.

I then proposed that we call a jeweler I knew, and I asked the buyer to make the call himself. He said that, Well you live here, maybe you should make the call. I was dialing and at that moment when my eyes were turned downwards to my cell phone, he ran towards where the bag was grabbed it and ran out the door.

He wasn't in the store four minutes before he grabbed the bag and ran.

I was right behind him, but when I ran out the door I dropped my cell phone.

What's clear, including from the other would be victims above, is that this guy has assumed a persona so thoroughly that he has no problem living an entire lie. Of course his presence and dress in person, plus the reek of marijuana on him, speak of a low life who has little or no education or means, but on the phone he has tried hard to cultivate the lie that he is someone who owns nice things and is capable of buying nice things.

I doubt that he cultivated this fictional persona overnight, he must have worked hard on it.

[Modiferous]

So far it seems like this character only pretends to live in northern California, given that he has targeted only southern California watch sellers? He targeted me, jb335 and myk7000.

Plus the fact that he arrived in his own vehicle with California plates.

However I do believe that he has some former connection to northern Cal and we are running this down. We already have some information about the general area that he probably lives now, the distance that he lives from this robbery location I mean.

[Ferdelious]

What a nightmare. Thankfully nothing happened to you.

I hope there's a happy ending to this story with an arrest and you receiving your watch back.

[Bstewart]

Did you get his plate info?

[brandrea]

Post the serial number of the watch here.

Report the watch stolen to Rolex.

I hope you are somehow made whole. Really awful to hear and could have ended very badly.

[FQ01]

Sorry that it happened with you! That is totally horrible... I kept thinking that such lowlifes doing crimes like that do some stupid things when facing a pushback, so on the bright side the loss in only financial. You could have faced a lot of really bad outcomes had you decided to engage him. And I think that you should feel blessed in some sense that it ended the way it did.

This guy will get caught eventually!

P.S. I might suggest taking to the forum staff and tapatalk (if he used that) to get his IP addresses. There is a ton of metadata every user leaves while browsing, and while by itself it is harmless, it might add to the puzzle quite decently. If he used tapatalk, check for registration username/email at least. He might have posted with it on craiglist or smth like that and might have left clues on his address.

[Chewbacca]

Terrible.

[Modiferous]

Yes we got the forum IP information from this forum and working on another too.

[Little machines]

Thank God you didn't get seriously injured when chasing this perp. Hopefully the jewelry store will have good photos to ID this bastard. Be very diligent to follow up with detectives handling case . Hopefully they will catch him and we will get another post with your watch in hand. Good luck !!

[hutch300]

One idea for future deals people could hide an AirTag in the box. Then if they run you can find them with the help of the police.

[sensui]

OP, glad you weren't hurt in this ordeal and made some smart decisions in terms of committing to a possible altercation with this thief. I think you did good given the circumstances.

Due to an increase of these types of occurrences, I have made a firm commitment to never doing a face to face anymore without payment handled first when selling a watch. Only exception would be if I really knew the guy/one of my friends. If the buyer can't understand it'd be the same as someone wiring me funds and then me sending the watch to them, then I'd politely decline the deal and move on. IMO taking this kind of risk is only going to be for new sellers out of desperation.

Trust goes both ways and I think sometimes that's forgotten in a marketplace where the buyer is used to a landscape of modern online shopping thinking it'd work the same way as Amazon/ebay.

[garyk]

I think from your experience, I would meet at a locked police station and keep the watch somehow separate from the box. So sad this had to happen to you but thanks for posting…

[Modiferous]

I usually do have an AirTag in my watch boxes but not in this one.

If you must do face to face deals:

An even better idea for the future is to bring a bag that has nothing but some junk in it, and if the guy grabs it and runs, you know he's a down and out criminal and all you lost is a bag of garbage.

After checking the buyer out if it turns out he is okay, THEN bring in the real thing.

It sounds tacky, but taking pictures of the buyer and asking for a license to examine in person is not a bad idea either. I should have also asked for some kind of proof via screenshots or logins in person that the buyer had the means to pay for the watch.

However, bottom line, if he is a desperate enough criminal, he could pull a gun in the store and ask you to go to wherever the watch is, and give it to him. But I figure if a thief is that down and out, he might as well just rob the store too, why bother with a seller.

The lowest form of criminal, in my opinion, is someone who steals from individuals, which is what this guy did and does.

[Hawkeye98]

Gut wrenching.
Was a police station ever discussed as a meeting point or was that not an option because he wanted an “authenticator” to look it over?


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[JRell]

This is horrible. Glad the OP is ok. Sorry to be that guy stating the obvious, but why people buy or sale anything to people you don’t know I will never understand. I wouldn’t even sell a pair of shoes let alone a Rolex.

[Modiferous]

Based on how well my few previous in-person sales had gone, I was lulled into putting this robber into the same category as the good people who had bought from me last year.

In theory, there was nothing different from the way this one was set up than the previous ones,
-first contact on the forum
-contact via cell phone
-texts and conversations on the phone
-submitted a copy of his DL (which turned out to be fake) via text
-arrange to meet somewhere to authenticate the watch
-receive payment in person via cashier's check or wire
-then turn over the watch

but this guy has obviously over time developed a faux persona to try to emulate a real buyer. He tried to set up myk7000 and jb335 and during the course of trying to get them he must've refined his con man presence. By the time he got to me, he had addressed some of the holes in his fabricated story.

What he can't overcome though, is that in person he appears like someone who is rough, and definitely not wealthy. The reek of marijuana doesn't help either.

If he hadn't had the opportunity to snatch the watch quickly, he would never have been able to get it, because he just didn't look right and I would have demanded more proof that he was someone who could pay for the watch before going any further.

One thing I failed to do that I should have was to authenticate who he was with some kind of job or business. And then to contact the person at his work to verify that he is indeed the buyer who is in contact with me, and not just someone assuming a legitimate person's identity.

Obviously this criminal went to great pains to try to insulate himself from being traced back to his real identity. He failed, but he tried very hard.


One dealer and someone above said something about "I don't sell to people I don't know" but that is ridiculous. I've bought watches from lots of dealers and none of them know me. I have sold watches and not known the dealers who bought them from me either. Sure you can get references, but at the end of the day if you deal with only people you know, that doesn't leave you much of a market.

[Bstewart]

Originally Posted by Modiferous

One thing I failed to do that I should have was to authenticate who he was with some kind of job or business. And then to contact the person at his work to verify that he is indeed the buyer who is in contact with me, and not just someone assuming a legitimate person's identity.

I'm not sure how many people would connect you to a coworker over a watch sale.

[MKIVdan]

Some of you thinking the jewelry store is in on it are completely insane. Its likely they locked the doors for a customer afterwards because of what happened earlier in the day.

[Modiferous]

Originally Posted by Bstewart

I'm not sure how many people would connect you to a coworker over a watch sale.

In case it wasn't clear what I meant was that anyone may provide a cell phone number and say I am so and so. But if you get a verifiable work number and call that number and speak to the person at his work, now you have verified that he is who he says he is.

I recall there was a time when online computer sellers used this as a verification before they would ship anything paid for with a credit card. They'd verify via some legitimate and verifiable business phone number or email that the person using the credit card was in fact the card holder.

[Robf52]

Originally Posted by Tridor

Sorry to learn of your misfortune. Unfortunately, given the state of the world today, I am not surprised. I hope your watch is recovered in good shape, and that this guy gets the book thrown at him.

This.

[Bstewart]

Originally Posted by Modiferous

In case it wasn't clear what I meant was that anyone may provide a cell phone number and say I am so and so. But if you get a verifiable work number and call that number and speak to the person at his work, now you have verified that he is who he says he is.

I recall there was a time when online computer sellers used this as a verification before they would ship anything paid for with a credit card. They'd verify via some legitimate and verifiable business phone number or email that the person using the credit card was in fact the card holder.

I understand now, and that makes a lot of sense. Again, sorry for your experience.

[sski]

thank goodness you're well......it could have ended badly. that's what matters most imo, glad you kept your pledge to your wife. this lowlife will inevitably get the book thrown at him once he's caught- its only a matter of time.

[enjoythemusic]

Serial number?

[Danny83]

He contacted me about a Daytona I had for sale. So when he told me he wanted to meet me at the Jewler to get it opened up. I told him that that’s a no, especially since he had no references. I asked him to leave me a deposit to meet him and I knew something was up.


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[EEpro]

Originally Posted by Danny83

He contacted me about a Daytona I had for sale. So when he told me he wanted to meet me at the Jewler to get it opened up. I told him that that’s a no, especially since he had no references. I asked him to leave me a deposit to meet him and I knew something was up.


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Should arrange to meet him with the cops. These jewelers must be in on it.


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