Watch out on Ebay -- 23 planes robbed

warthog1984 said:
Shouldn't be in classifieds.

BTW- you are aware that NONE of those avionics will ever be sold, right?
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People try to sell stolen aviation equipment all the time. Whether the succeed is another thing. Seems to me they should have reasonable luck selling to the experimental aircraft crowd.
 
Man, what a pain. That's lousy.

"The airport operator in Aurora tells us in his opinion, this has everything to do with money, not with terrorism." Great point, reporter. It also doesn't have anything to do with arson, human trafficking, or industrial espionage. (WTH?? Terrorism??!?)
 
There will be a part 2 to this story. But part 2 will be harder to find and will take longer. Here is how part 2 will play out.

Now that this person or people have these units and everyone is looking for them. They will break into another airport and hangar then change all these stolen units for ones no one has reported stolen.

They will then sell these units. Then when the owner of these airplanes go to get new equipment they will get busted for having hot or stolen equipment in their airplane.

I would say they already have the airport picked out for all this equipment to be swapped out for non hot units.

Time to put camera's in hangars...

Tony
 
1600vw said:
There will be a part 2 to this story. But part 2 will be harder to find and will take longer. Here is how part 2 will play out.

Now that this person or people have these units and everyone is looking for them. They will break into another airport and hangar then change all these stolen units for ones no one has reported stolen.

They will then sell these units. Then when the owner of these airplanes go to get new equipment they will get busted for having hot or stolen equipment in their airplane.

I would say they already have the airport picked out for all this equipment to be swapped out for non hot units.

Time to put camera's in hangars...

Tony
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Agree totally,most aircraft owners will not even notice the swap was made,till the need service.
 
Good point - My g300xl may already be changed out.
 
bartmc said:
I'm quite sure I would notice if someone swapped out my avionics.
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I bet others said the same thing. Do you think this has never happened before. When I sent my Transponder off to be repaired the man who did the repair told me he has seen this. He also said, no you will not know it when they change your equipment with stolen equipment.

Tony
 
so, I haz a question.......if it's easy enough for criminals to remove and install avionics, why can't we do it?
 
1600vw said:
He also said, no you will not know it when they change your equipment with stolen equipment. Tony
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Unless I modify them, I'm sure that's true. But now I'm wondering if I shouldn't put a dot of paint, or my initials, or something unique on the faceplate of each one. Can they swap faceplates? Maybe. Will they take the time, or move onto a softer target? Dunno.
 
Jim Logajan said:
People try to sell stolen aviation equipment all the time. Whether the succeed is another thing. Seems to me they should have reasonable luck selling to the experimental aircraft crowd.
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Yeah, we buy all that stolen stuff..... :lol:

How do you think we fly so cheap? :D
 
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Would any of you guys buy a radio on the internet without a tray? I wouldn't, but I guess there are people out there that have no problem buying known stolen property as long as it's cheap enough. Maybe they can track down the radios when people start placing orders for trays only?
 
1600vw said:
There will be a part 2 to this story. But part 2 will be harder to find and will take longer. Here is how part 2 will play out.

Now that this person or people have these units and everyone is looking for them. They will break into another airport and hangar then change all these stolen units for ones no one has reported stolen.

They will then sell these units. Then when the owner of these airplanes go to get new equipment they will get busted for having hot or stolen equipment in their airplane.

I would say they already have the airport picked out for all this equipment to be swapped out for non hot units.

Time to put camera's in hangars...

Tony
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If the plot really is this involved, the word needs to get out to all the airport managers. If anyone reports a hangar broken into and nothing appears to be missing, then we know to check the radios. Do the stolen unit's serial numbers get reported to Garmin and King?

Now that I think about it, the thief is probably somebody that works at an avionics shop. This way, as planes come in for service, he can do the swap and nobody is the wiser. I'll know if anybody swaps my 430 because all my databases will suddenly be current!!:lol:
 
eman1200 said:
so, I haz a question.......if it's easy enough for criminals to remove and install avionics, why can't we do it?
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Private pilots are permitted to perform preventive maintenance. Read preventive maintenance section of CFR 43, Appendix A, item 31:

(31) Removing and replacing self-contained, front instrument panel-mounted navigation and communication devices that employ tray-mounted connectors that connect the unit when the unit is installed into the instrument panel, (excluding automatic flight control systems, transponders, and microwave frequency distance measuring equipment (DME)). The approved unit must be designed to be readily and repeatedly removed and replaced, and pertinent instructions must be provided. Prior to the unit's intended use, and operational check must be performed in accordance with the applicable sections of part 91 of this chapter.
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Dav8or said:
Would any of you guys buy a radio on the internet without a tray? I wouldn't, but I guess there are people out there that have no problem buying known stolen property as long as it's cheap enough. Maybe they can track down the radios when people start placing orders for trays only?
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This is somewhat common in the experimental world. Guys will buy a tray during a build. I am not a builder and have not done it personally but might to defray cost if I were slowly building.

I do buy stuff on ebay. Bought a 430 and a GTN650 on ebay. Both came with trays; both serials are clean. Short of limiting our purchases to dealers and checking with the manufacturer on the serial number, what can we do to protect ourselves from inadvertently supporting this sort of activity?
 
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I got a list from Rotax last week of stolen engines by type and serial number. Only a couple in the US, but dozens taken in Europe.
 
FORANE said:
This is somewhat common in the experimental world. Guys will buy a tray during a build. I am not a builder and have not done it personally but might to defray cost if I were slowly building.

I do buy stuff on ebay. Bought a 430 and a GTN650 on ebay.
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So you guys are the people that buy all the stolen stuff!!;):D I'm having trouble coming up with a legitimate reason why somebody would sell a used radio without a tray. Don't all new radios automatically come with a tray?
 
flyingriki said:
Yeah, we buy all that stolen stuff..... :lol:
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I only mentioned experimentals because a properly run shop would likely want to see traceability documents before installing any equipment into a certified aircraft that a customer brings in, while an experimental owner does not have any FAA obligation in that regard.
 
Maybe they should make this equipment have removable faces and only the original face will work, or how ever they do it with car stereo equipment.

Tony
 
Jim_R said:
Man, what a pain. That's lousy.

"The airport operator in Aurora tells us in his opinion, this has everything to do with money, not with terrorism." Great point, reporter. It also doesn't have anything to do with arson, human trafficking, or industrial espionage. (WTH?? Terrorism??!?)
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Silly pilot. Everything about aviation is about terrorism.
:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

bartmc said:
I'm quite sure I would notice if someone swapped out my avionics.
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Be careful saying that. I used to say that until the remote gyro on my plane was swapped out by someone, and I didn't notice until leaving 4-Corners sometime later when it didn't sync.
 
MSPAviator said:
Some junky A&P doing this to get money for weed? :confused::mad:
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Uh if it was a junky, I doubt he did it to buy weed lol

Most potheads I know that smoke that much have a hard time finding the motivation to change their own oil let alone all that.

I'd wager they will make some fake yellow tags up (ain't much to those anyways) and sell em. Or maybe they have a buyer outside of FAA land.


Ether way that sucks and I hope that dude gets what's coming to him.
 
JHW said:
Good point - My g300xl may already be changed out.
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I wish someone would change mine out. I'll give them the keys to the hangar. PoS Garmin plastics, "sticky face" deteriorating junk. Call Garmin and they say "sure we can fix it...that'll be a $900 flat fee."

"But...but...I have 30 year-old radios I my plane that haven't done this."

"Sorry, our number one company principle is to screw you."
 
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Jim Logajan said:
I only mentioned experimentals because a properly run shop would likely want to see traceability documents before installing any equipment into a certified aircraft that a customer brings in, while an experimental owner does not have any FAA obligation in that regard.
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Another theoretical suggestion with little accuracy. We don't buy from any old bozo that puts something up for sale. We usually deal in our forums with reputable people we know or who have a history on the forum. Occasionally someone pops up with 'stuff' for sale and gets run off.
So, nice theory but no cigar. We are legit too, just flying faster and cheaper....! :D
 
I think a lot of you guys are missing it. The market isn't in the U.S. Those GPS' will sell just fine as known stolen central or south America. Look at the price of a used 430, come on. Someone living on much less that could have an aviation GPS with an out of date card installed for $500 would jump on those, they wouldn't last a day.

In Texas most of our stolen vehicles go straight south. I was in the middle of the jungle in Belize. There were U.S. license plates laying all over the place from vehicles that had been driven down there.
 
bartmc said:
I'm quite sure I would notice if someone swapped out my avionics.
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I'm quite sure that most pilots would notice the lock on thief hangar door had been cut.

The problem with Tony's theory is that it would require the thief to know exactly what airplane has the same avionics and which hangar it resides in well in advance. Not no where near as easy as breaking into hangars and ripping out avionics in the first place.

I think Alex us probably right. They are going out of the country.
 
Palmpilot said:
http://rtaerospace.com/images/slideshows/gust_lock/gust_lock1.htm

http://rtaerospace.com/gust_lock.htm
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That's why I carry insurance. So I don't have to carry that thing around.

gustlock-1.jpg


If somebody swipes my radios, I'm upgrading.
 
Fearless Tower said:
I'm quite sure that most pilots would notice the lock on thief hangar door had been cut.

The problem with Tony's theory is that it would require the thief to know exactly what airplane has the same avionics and which hangar it resides in well in advance.
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Unless the initial theft was the only one that required b&e- there's crooked mechance that will facilitate the swap and many planes are in plain sight on the ramp.
 
FORANE said:
This is somewhat common in the experimental world. Guys will buy a tray during a build. I am not a builder and have not done it personally but might to defray cost if I were slowly building.

I do buy stuff on ebay. Bought a 430 and a GTN650 on ebay. Both came with trays; both serials are clean. Short of limiting our purchases to dealers and checking with the manufacturer on the serial number, what can we do to protect ourselves from inadvertently supporting this sort of activity?
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This is really quite a shame to hear some jerk decided to steal all of these units. Hopefully, the owners of the aircraft are reporting the Serial Numbers and Part Numbers to Garmin, Bendix/King, etc.

As a fellow aviator and avionics reseller, I can tell you first hand that one should always ask for the serial number and part number of the unit before they complete the purchase. Therefore, you can call Garmin or other OEMs and ask them to run a check on the Serial Number. They will be able to tell you almost everything about it, including if it was reported stolen or not. Another popular thing in the industry is that A&Ps or MROs will remove and withhold the title to "Any avionics or components" which are removed upon time of panel upgrade, etc. They do this to reduce labor costs for the aircraft owner in order to win the install bid. Therefore, they can make up those costs by reselling the removed units on eBay, Barnstormers, Etc. Often times, they keep the trays, connectors and antennas for future installs. This is because trays, backplates and antennas are difficult to source from OEMs, unless they are a certified dealer for said company. Also, shipping times from many of the OEMs can be a nightmare to deal with.

So please, adhere to this simple rule when purchasing any used/pre-owned aircraft part or avionics component. Ask for Part Number and Serial Number before purchasing the unit. Also, ensure the Part Number and Serial Number are included on the quote and invoice you receive. If you ask for photos, ask for photos of the component's ID Tag. Every avionics component has an ID Tag from the manufacturer that lists it's Part Number, Serial Number and additional information such as Hardware Mods and Software Mods which may have been applied. Please also note that there are known cases where a component will have an incorrect ID Tag or the previous time the ID Tag was updated could be incorrect. I've only come across 1 unit that has had an incorrect ID Tag -- I was unable to find out if it was due to malicious intent from previous owner or if it was a manufacturer or Repair shop mistake.
 
Sorry, but this is a pet peeve of mine.

Robbery indicates that someone was in the airplane and a person ran up, yanked opened the door and held a gun, knife, stick, stinky dead skunk, etc:, in the persons face and demanded cash, jewelry, dirty socks, etc;, or "I'll give it to ya, see..."

Something stolen from an aircraft, hanger, car, home, Fort Knox, etc;, would constitute burglary.

Again, I apologize for any inconvenience, I had to clarify this.

Now back to your regularly scheduled programing....
 
Dav8or said:
So you guys are the people that buy all the stolen stuff!!;):D I'm having trouble coming up with a legitimate reason why somebody would sell a used radio without a tray. Don't all new radios automatically come with a tray?
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I can think of a few legitimate reasons why a tray would be sold by itself.

There are plenty of avionics stores on ebay and they will buy a radio with a tray and re-sell them separately to increase profit.

I buy a radio to replace a bad unit in my plane. I don't need the tray so I re-sell it.

My transponder quits working for the umpteenth time and I pull it out of the panel and toss it out of the plane at 9500' over Eastern Oregon. I decide to upgrade to a better unit when I get home. I sell the removed tray by itself. Serves it right for pairing with such a POS transponder.
 
stsflyer said:
My transponder quits working for the umpteenth time and I pull it out of the panel and toss it out of the plane at 9500' over Eastern Oregon. I decide to upgrade to a better unit when I get home. I sell the removed tray by itself. Serves it right for pairing with such a POS transponder.
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Hmmm... :sosp: This sounds more like a personal story than a hypothetical. ;)
 
bartmc said:
I'm quite sure I would notice if someone swapped out my avionics.
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Transponder maybe. I'd think you'd notice if the saved routes and waypoints in your GPS had changed or if the saved frequencies in your radios had changed.

I kinda doubt that the legendary teef would take to time to copy all of that.
 
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stsflyer said:
My transponder quits working for the umpteenth time and I pull it out of the panel and toss it out of the plane at 9500' over Eastern Oregon. I decide to upgrade to a better unit when I get home. I sell the removed tray by itself. Serves it right for pairing with such a POS transponder.
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First time I've heard of rage-quitting avionics.
 
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