Stealing Christmas presents...

Makes you wonder. What in the world do the bad guys have against this place? This is where you hope what goes around comes around.

A wheelchair valued at £600 and specially adapted computer equipment were also stolen.

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in my defense, i had one hour before the curtain went up for my one man show on the life of stephen hawking, and my prop guy was nowhere to be found.

the show must go on, folks.

William Haskins said:

in my defense, i had one hour before the curtain went up for my one man show on the life of stephen hawking, and my prop guy was nowhere to be found.

the show must go on, folks.

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In that case, the we'd better see the chair deposited back in front of the building in a few days time, with a *generous* rental payment attached with a big red bow.

Clock's tickin' my man.


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More seriously, people who steal at the holidays (from disabled kids, no less), are pretty much scum in my book. Who steals adaptive equipment from people who desperately need it? (Don't answer that, dammit) Not that this is a particularly earth shatteringly controversial opinion, but I wanted to say it anyway.

Cranky said:

In that case, the we'd better see the chair deposited back in front of the building in a few days time, with a *generous* rental payment attached with a big red bow.

Clock's tickin' my man.

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we'll see. it's got a comfortable butt-groove in it now.

The sixth break in in two months??

Seems like the real problem here is security.

People steal anything. If it's easy to get to - they'll steal it even faster.

Shadow Dragon said:

The real problem is that a charity for disabled children needs security.

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True enough, but as illustrated by the OP, a lot of that stuff is *really* expensive. What *I"d* like to know, then, is what kind of scumball is buying this stuff from the thieves. I mean, who fences equipment for disabled people? Sheesh.

drug addicts, professional wheelchair racers, people who really hate the disabled...

William Haskins said:

drug addicts, professional wheelchair racers, people who really hate the disabled...

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Okay, yes.

My point being, really, I guess, is there really that large a black market for this stuff? Buying it from the thief must pay off for the buyer at some point, or the transaction wouldn't take place to begin with. The thieves wouldn't take it if there weren't a market for it on the back end, so to speak. So, is the market *other* disabled people or caregivers? Gawd, I hope not, but it seems like the most likely choice. And that squicks me out even more, for some reason.

Maybe I should just go back to simply being outraged that someone stole from disabled kids....

Cranky said:

True enough, but as illustrated by the OP, a lot of that stuff is *really* expensive. What *I"d* like to know, then, is what kind of scumball is buying this stuff from the thieves. I mean, who fences equipment for disabled people? Sheesh.

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[out of 1,472] . . . 634 supplier billing numbers were revoked, saving Medicare a projected $317 million. Examples of products that are being billed at higher than normal rates are motorized wheelchairs; nebulizers and aerosol medications; artificial limbs; and wound therapy treatments. A similar initiative happened in the Los Angeles area last year. Investigations of 2,000 DMEPOS suppliers resulted in 770 having their billing privileges revoked. Like South Florida, Los Angeles has been a hotbed of fraudulent activity.

http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2007pres/07/pr20070702a.html

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Durable Medical Equipment Fraud hurts everyone.

Magdalen said:

Durable Medical Equipment Fraud hurts everyone.

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Thievery by another name still reeks as awfully, true dat.

That's despicable. Faith in humanity = diminished.

Cranky said:

Okay, yes.

My point being, really, I guess, is there really that large a black market for this stuff? Buying it from the thief must pay off for the buyer at some point, or the transaction wouldn't take place to begin with. The thieves wouldn't take it if there weren't a market for it on the back end, so to speak. So, is the market *other* disabled people or caregivers? Gawd, I hope not, but it seems like the most likely choice. And that squicks me out even more, for some reason.

Maybe I should just go back to simply being outraged that someone stole from disabled kids....

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In my experience, a lot of this stuff is stolen and then either pawned or sold on Craigslist. So, yes, there's a market, always one or two people looking for a newer wheelchair and probably don't even think they're buying something stolen.

On a related issue, (by the way I'm a prosecutor) at this time of year I have a lot of defense attorneys asking for breaks for their clients, Christmas gifts so to speak. I understand why they are asking, but my inclination is not to release thieves and needy drug addicts at this time of year. And precisely because some innocent homeowner or charity might end up with a door to fix and stuff to replace.

MarkEsq said:

In my experience, a lot of this stuff is stolen and then either pawned or sold on Craigslist. So, yes, there's a market, always one or two people looking for a newer wheelchair and probably don't even think they're buying something stolen.

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I love it when the obvious answer eludes me. *facepalm* Thanks, Mark.

As far as the "why" of this, my dear old dad years ago nailed it pretty neatly: "son, some people are simply no damned good."

I suspect that many people who commit crimes rationalize in their mind that they were given such a shitty deal...drug addict parents...abandoned...poverty....were beaten...that they deserve to strike back.

Take whatever they want.

From whoever they want.

They have no sympathy for anyone on the planet because .."I got screwed by the world.....so fuck it....give me that wheelchair."

They're nuts.

It's hard for normal people like us to understand how anyone can mug an old lady, steel from handicapped...etc..

But these aren't normal people.

They're damaged whiney cowards who are going to take out their issues on whoever or whatever they want.

Thank you.

and now for a variation on the theme:

Two men and a woman were caught on Sunday at 7pm after cleaning out two basement storage areas of an apartment block on Larmvägen in Helsingborg in southern Sweden, newspaper Kvällsposten reported on Monday.

"People had seen them at the spot, but they had managed to escape. However, since two of them were in wheelchairs, they did not get very far. The tracks were not difficult to follow in the snow. We did not even need a dog," Leif Nilsson, an internal officer in command of the Helsingborg police, told Kvällsposten.

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http://www.thelocal.se/31096/20101227/