NEW YORK STOLEN COMPUTERS FOUND ON EBAY eBay sale leads to stolen goods bust - Newsday.com:
eBay sale leads to stolen goods bust
BY MICHAEL FRAZIER
Newsday Staff Writer

January 9, 2007

A Mineola man looking to replace a stolen GPS device happened to find his pinched gadget on a popular online marketplace, triggering an investigation that led to an arrest and the recovery of instruments swiped from across Long Island and New York's five boroughs, Nassau police said yesterday.

The $50,000 in electronics were recovered from the business and the Great Neck home of Danial Rangkar, 25, of 2 Walnut Pl. He was arrested Sunday on charges of third-degree criminal possession ofstolen property and first-degree scheming to defraud. Rangkar, who owns a second-hand business in Jamaica, Queens, pleaded not guilty yesterday and was ordered held on bail of $50,000 bond or $25,000 cash. His relatives and attorney couldn't be reached yesterday to comment.

Police said Rangkar knowingly purchased the stolen property for resale, making at least 90 unlawful transactions.

"The public should be very concerned when purchasing second-hand products," Police Commissioner James Lawrence said. "We urge consumers to ... thoroughly inquire about the merchandise they wish to buy. "

The man with the stolen global positioning system device sparked the joint investigation between Nassau police and the district attorney's office. That man, whose identity wasn't released by police, looked on eBay for a replacement of his GPS device 10 days after his wasstolen on Dec. 20 from his car in Mineola. "He was in the bidding to buy his own stolen GPS," District Attorney Kathleen Rice said.

He soon recognized the system as his because of a custom modification to the power cord, police said. He called Nassau police and Third Squad Det. Brett Nordmann registered with eBay to investigate. Nordmann contacted the stolen GPS seller, who police said was Rangkar.

The recovered electronics included iPods, at least 29 cell phones and 12 laptop computers - two of them apparently stolen from St. John's University in Jamaica, Queens. At least 31 GPS devices ranging from $250 to $1,000 or more were also recovered.

Police are searching for the devices' original owners, which isn't too hard with GPS devices that record the owner's address in its memory, police said.

"Once we power them up, we know where home is," said Det. Lt. Raymond Cote, commander of the Third Squad.