Aviation Thief

T

Tex_Mike

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Houston
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Tex_MIKE
When making my daily rounds through craigs list I found a posting by an owner who had his 430W stolen. Turns out several were stolen the same night. The thief broke a few windows to get in.

Man this would tear me up if it happened to me (and if I actually owned a plane!).

http://houston.craigslist.org/for/4332245217.html
 
As bad as that is, this is also one of the reasons why it's important to have insurance.

If someone broke into the 310's hangar and ripped out its avionics stack (not cheap), the insurance would pay to have it replaced.
 
I wonder what the thief plans to do with these? If he knows what he's doing as claimed, he certainly knows they'll be no updates. Selling them to Eastern Europe ? China? Desktop simulators for MS-FS geeks?

The "owner" owns a flight school, not sure if he owns the planes or not. Makes a mess of their rental fleet no matter what.
 
Sounds like this person knew what he or she was doing. I bet it goes down like this.

This person or persons will find other airplanes with like equipment then swap these out. The owner of the airplane they swap this out for will have no idea until they go to have an upgrade, then they are in for a world of hurt for they have stolen equipment.

I bet you never find the scum.

Tony
 
You can update the GNS series without using serial numbers, just can't get them serviced or repaired by Garmin. The GTN series are serial number dependent for updates. :D
The biggest issue for a flight school, if it's covered under insurance, is going to be downtime. I would guess 21-30 days to settle the claim, obtain new/used equipment and get it installed!:eek:

Blatham489 said:
I wonder what the thief plans to do with these? If he knows what he's doing as claimed, he certainly knows they'll be no updates. Selling them to Eastern Europe ? China? Desktop simulators for MS-FS geeks?

The "owner" owns a flight school, not sure if he owns the planes or not. Makes a mess of their rental fleet no matter what.
Click to expand...
 
A friend had a prop strike in his Mooney while taxiing from a grassy area up/onto the asphalt ramp and had to leave it tied-down after it happened. The first nice someone broke in and cleaned out 4 Garmin boxes.... :( Insurance eventually made it right.
 
Unfortunately, Weiser is the perfect airport to get away with this kind of crime. Park at the BBQ joint and hop the fence. And it's right on a major highway.
 
I bet if you parked another airplane in this same spot, with some really nice glass panels and some really nice GPS systems. Then watch this airplane you will catch these people. If they did this once they will do it again. Maybe not the next day but a month from now, they will be back.

Tony
 
Blatham489 said:
I wonder what the thief plans to do with these? If he knows what he's doing as claimed, he certainly knows they'll be no updates. Selling them to Eastern Europe ? China? Desktop simulators for MS-FS geeks?

The "owner" owns a flight school, not sure if he owns the planes or not. Makes a mess of their rental fleet no matter what.
Click to expand...
Steal a box then swap(resteal) it with an identical one. The SN reported stolen is in another plane unknown until repair time. And the thief has a clean box to sell.
 
1600vw said:
Sounds like this person knew what he or she was doing. I bet it goes down like this.

This person or persons will find other airplanes with like equipment then swap these out. The owner of the airplane they swap this out for will have no idea until they go to have an upgrade, then they are in for a world of hurt for they have stolen equipment.

I bet you never find the scum.
Click to expand...

That's the pattern that is used, swap equipment around with at least one other aircraft then sell an item that hasn't been reported as stolen yet. If the thief is caught they just say they were doing some work on both planes and inadvertently swapped the radios (or gps or whatever). Make the trail long enough and LE/DA can't find the end of it or prove who did what with criminal intent.

An avionics tech was accused of this scheme at FTG. The stolen radio and two switched radios were reported to the county sheriff and the response was basically "We can't do anything" The avionics tech had a legitimate business and had been given access to many hangars on the field which made it much more difficult to prove anything.
 
An airport my friend was based at had some engines go missing. They were attached to planes. Apparently the fan boat guys like them.
 
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