- ABC
ABC did a whole Nightline piece on a division of the Portland Police Bureau last night: A group of detectives who spend a lot of their time tracking down thieves who sell their stolen goods on Craigslist (they also spend a lot of time blasting MC Hammer, ABC notes). From the story:
It works like this: Detectives conduct sting operations by contacting suspicious sellers directly, either by sending text messages from disposable, so-called “burner phones,” or sending emails from phony email accounts.
“I’m leaving a few spelling errors in there. Makes it a little authentic,” said officer Brian Hughes.
Adorning an entire wall of their office is a kind of “Craigslist Wall of Fame,” which includes items the unit has recovered in recent sting operations: computers, guitars, custom-made car engines, GPS devices, a lot of bikes, even baby strollers.
It’s an interesting little piece—you can read their tips for what to do if your stolen stuff is on Craiglist.