Today one of our customers in Mobile discovered his storage locker had been broken into. All heavyweight passenger cars and sets(K-Line, Lionel, MTH and Williams) were taken along with two used computers and two lawn chairs. Kindly let me know if you see any such items listed For Sale by a seller(in the Mobile area) you are not familiar with. Thank you, John in Lansing, ILL
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Sorry to hear of this. Any idea road names should we be keeping an eye out for showing up for sale?
@rattler21 posted:Today one of our customers in Mobile discovered his storage locker had been broken into. All heavyweight passenger cars and sets(K-Line, Lionel, MTH and Williams) were taken along with two used computers and two lawn chairs. Kindly let me know if you see any such items listed For Sale by a seller(in the Mobile area) you are not familiar with. Thank you, John in Lansing, ILL
Is this "Mobile" in Alabama?
Even in storage units its good to install a game camera or two. Is the renter covered by Insurance from the storage unit?
There are 2 places named Mobile in The Democratic Republic of the Congo (Africa).
There is one place named Mobile (Alabama) in America.
There is one place named Mobile (Newfoundland) in Canada.
Walter/RMT
I'm going to guess Alabama. 
I am with you John. I guess the thief doesn’t know that the hobby is dying and everyone has too many trains so they will be difficult to fence. 😀
Badge 109 - Plenty of Santa Fe and Pullman heavyweights including baggage cars. Mostly cars as they came from the factory. Also bodies with floors and separate heavyweight (3 axle) trucks. John
Were a lot of storage units broken into, or just one? If just one, then thief likely knows what they have; if multiple units, then he probably doesn't know. Whether or not the thief knows what he has might affect how he disposes of them - ebay or sell to a train buyer, vs. running to a local pawn shop. Have the appropriate potential buyers been notified, along with detailed descriptions? And sad to think it might be an acquaintance or family member, but who else knew what was there?
Police are probably too busy with violent crimes to spend much time on this, so most work will probably have to be done by the owner. Hopefully it was insured and hope that the storage unit owner is concerned and helpful.
A member of my club has a storage unit - need to drive past a camera and enter a code to get a vehicle to the unit. Not perfect, but a good start - removing stuff without a lot of time and effort and without being seen would be very difficult.
Rattler, Please, what state are you talking about, because I'm in the state of confusion, John
@Walter Matuch posted:Number of places named Mobile per country:
There are 2 places named Mobile in The Democratic Republic of the Congo (Africa).
There is one place named Mobile (Alabama) in America.
There is one place named Mobile (Newfoundland) in Canada.
Walter/RMT
From Wikipedia: "Sonoran Valley, also referred to as Mobile, is a community in the southern planning area of Goodyear, Maricopa County, Arizona, United States."
While a clerk for the ICG (formerly Gulf, Mobile and Ohio) in the 1970's, I was looking through the book of all RR stations/RR-named places in the US and found Mobile (Alabama, where I live), Mobile, Arizona and one on the SP in California, I do seem to recall. Some of these RR "places" are simply places where a RR phone connected to the dispatcher is/was, named for various reasons.
The name "Mobile", in AL, is from an Indian tribe of Alabama and Mississippi named: Mabila/Mauvilla/etc. It came to us by way of the French who founded the city in 1702, though the Spanish first encountered them in the 1500's. DeSoto fought a big battle with them; at the time the Mobilian chief was named "Tuska Lusa".
I'm through now.
Nuff said!
The time i have been involved in trains , i was aware of two train thefts , and both were not related ,but each thief new were to get the trains and get rid of them . the first one was the son of a man with a big collection, the fence was a local dealer of williams trains , he contacted the dealer and met at night in a secluded parking lot .IT was cash deals out of the trunk of his car. The word spread quickly , about the dealer who had great buys on lionel trains .
Well one saturday there was a train show at a small auditorium the next town over . the williams dealer was there with all his great deals , but so was the father whos trains were being stolen , he saw them and said nothing to the dealer , he just called the police they came and the man was able to identify his stuff and it was confiscated by the police .I was at the show and saw it , i do not know legal out come it was never in the papers . but i do know the dealer had a postmaster job , was a mason and a T.C.A MEMBER.
The second one i caught the buyer of the stolen trains red handed. i had good friend who is now passed on . he called me one day to tell me he caught a guy running out the back door of celler with an armful of trains he confronted the man he dropped the trains and ran . HE told me was missing and keep an out . well day a was with another friend into trains . he said to me lets go to j--- house i have to get some parts from him , when we went into j--- cellar there was my friends trains that were missing , one of them that was dismantled and he was about to paint the shell . i had done an e unit repair on it the week before , and confronted the guy on the spot , i pointed out my repair and told him that the train was stolen , he was called by my friend also to be on the look out , j--- threw me out of his house , my friend got his trains back . J-- WAS ALSO A T.C.A MEMBER . both thieves new were to get the stuff and who to sell it to . that is why i tell know one what i have and where it is , i might sound hard but i trust no one with my trains . techman a thief with no hands is a thief no more
@rattler21 posted:The storage unit is in Mobile, Alabama. John
You should edit your original post to clear things up. Its additionally confusing since you are in Michigan.
@Walter Matuch posted:Number of places named Mobile per country:
There are 2 places named Mobile in The Democratic Republic of the Congo (Africa). There is one place named Mobile (Alabama) in America. There is one place named Mobile (Newfoundland) in Canada. Walter/RMT
We shouldn't have to do any guessing or research into how many Mobiles there possibly are on Earth. It is up to the original poster to be clear.
@RadioRon posted:We shouldn't have to do any guessing or research into how many Mobiles there possibly are on Earth. It is up to the original poster to be clear.
Which brings up a more general complaint. Does anybody proofread their posts before clicking Post Reply? The MTH retirement thread is a good example of this. Autocorrect/autocomplete was in full operation with many incoherent posts. Slow down, read your posts before submitting.
Steve
I hope you have better luck getting results than I did. About a year and half ago I bought a 3rd Rail PRR P5 Box Electric engine from a seller in CA and got an email notice that USPS had delivered it. When I checked, there was nothing. I contacted USPS and the postman, who delivered it, claimed that he left it on the porch. I contacted local police, but with no camera setup, they were no help. They did recommend that, as it was a USPS delivery, I should file a report with the local Postmaster General, which I did but heard nothing. To add insult to injury, I see the same item on ebay, using the same original ad, and the seller was located in a town about 30 miles away. I contacted ebay, but they would do nothing. Plus, since I never possessed the item, I had no way to actually identify it and my home owner's insurance deductible was equivalent to the item value.
@sxe60 posted:I hope you have better luck getting results than I did. About a year and half ago I bought a 3rd Rail PRR P5 Box Electric engine from a seller in CA and got an email notice that USPS had delivered it. When I checked, there was nothing. I contacted USPS and the postman, who delivered it, claimed that he left it on the porch. I contacted local police, but with no camera setup, they were no help. They did recommend that, as it was a USPS delivery, I should file a report with the local Postmaster General, which I did but heard nothing. To add insult to injury, I see the same item on ebay, using the same original ad, and the seller was located in a town about 30 miles away. I contacted ebay, but they would do nothing. Plus, since I never possessed the item, I had no way to actually identify it and my home owner's insurance deductible was equivalent to the item value.
An almost identical situation happened to me. I filed the reports, I knew I wouldn’t get my items back but I wanted it on record that something had happened. The feel good part, if you’d call it that, is that the items were train parts that would have no value to the porch pirate. Also the parts were so unique as that they could only be used on a VERY limited application. I imagine that the items ended up in the trash. I’ve since installed a video doorbell and a few other security related items. Lesson learned.
Steve
@RadioRon posted:You should edit your original post to clear things up. Its additionally confusing since you are in Michigan.
Ron, Why do you think we are in Michigan? What is wrong with having customers in a state/country other than your home municipality? John
@RideTheRails posted:Which brings up a more general complaint. Does anybody proofread their posts before clicking Post Reply? The MTH retirement thread is a good example of this. Autocorrect/autocomplete was in full operation with many incoherent posts. Slow down, read your posts before submitting.
Steve
And there is the edit option on these posts as well that the o.p. can utilize. Its that "gear icon" on the lower right of each post.
Partial list of stolen items.
Right of Way D&H A-B-A
Williams - Two UP coaches and one SF/REA hvywt baggage car
at least six road diesel locomotives.
K-Line B&O five car heavyweight passenger car set
Santa Fe heavyweight two baggage cars, two coaches and dining car
NYC heavyweights - two coach cars and one baggage car
MTH Santa Fe heavyweight baggage car 1812
Weaver - three TrailerTrain flat cars.
John
@sxe60 posted:I hope you have better luck getting results than I did. About a year and half ago I bought a 3rd Rail PRR P5 Box Electric engine from a seller in CA and got an email notice that USPS had delivered it. When I checked, there was nothing. I contacted USPS and the postman, who delivered it, claimed that he left it on the porch. I contacted local police, but with no camera setup, they were no help. They did recommend that, as it was a USPS delivery, I should file a report with the local Postmaster General, which I did but heard nothing. To add insult to injury, I see the same item on ebay, using the same original ad, and the seller was located in a town about 30 miles away. I contacted ebay, but they would do nothing. Plus, since I never possessed the item, I had no way to actually identify it and my home owner's insurance deductible was equivalent to the item value.
1. Shipping items "signature required" can help, especially if someone is around during the day.
2. You can always file a small claims civil action in your local court against the seller who now has the item if you're sure and can prove it is the same unit. Doesn't cost much and worst that can happen is you lose a morning in court.
Hey Ride the Rails...kudos to you for your suggestion of reminding folks to proof read and edit posts and replies.
Sure makes reading and understanding easier...pls withhold " grammar police" comments...
The woman that dilivers our mail is the best. We have no hobby shops on the island so everything I buy must go through the mail. We get very heavy rains sometimes here and she knows about my trains. If it's raining and we aren't home she puts any boxes on the kitchen counter. She gets a nice Christmas gift from us every year. Don
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