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From the Police Blotter: The Wrong Buyers
Portland Police Bureau photo
Police say they’ve arrested a man accused of trying to sell thousands of face masks intended for hospital workers that were stolen earlier this month. Police said someone took 20 to 25 cases of N95 respirator masks from The ReBuilding Center in North Portland on March 7. Each case contained 400 masks.
Protective equipment for health workers is in short supply amid the coronavirus pandemic. The nonprofit ReBuilding Center diverts building materials from landfills and offers them for reuse. Court records indicate the victim of the theft was Mercy Corps, another Portland nonprofit.
The masks were going to be donated to Mercy Corps. The day after the theft the victim of the theft found the masks for sale on Craigslist. The victim contacted the seller and arranged a meeting with the seller to purchase the masks. The victim then contacted the Beaverton Police Department. The seller did not meet the buyer he was looking for; instead, he met Beaverton police officers.
Published in PolicingHe was booked into the Washington County Jail on suspicion of first-degree theft by receiving stolen property. Officers recovered six boxes of masks. After further investigation, Portland police on Saturday recovered seven more boxes of masks stored in a Northeast Portland house. The remaining boxes of masks haven’t been found.
Police said the investigation continues, and more arrests are possible. The masks recovered have been donated to local hospitals.
Throw the book at them.
Maybe Craigslist isn’t the most reliable fence
The question is whether or not courts should cough on the book before throwing it.
;-)
Although in this case it was the victim that contacted the police after seeing the masks on Craigslist the Portland Police Bureau has a couple of detectives that monitor Craigslist on a regular basis.
Class C Felony
A person commits the crime of theft in the first degree if, by means other than extortion, the person commits theft as defined in ORS 164.015 (“Theft” described) and:
(a) The total value of the property in a single or aggregate transaction is $1,000 or more;
(b) The theft is committed during a riot, fire, explosion, catastrophe or other emergency in an area affected by the riot, fire, explosion, catastrophe or other emergency;
(c) The theft is theft by receiving committed by buying, selling, borrowing or lending on the security of the property;
(d) The subject of the theft is a firearm or explosive;
(e) The subject of the theft is a livestock animal, a companion animal or a wild animal removed from habitat or born of a wild animal removed from habitat, pursuant to ORS 497.308 (Wildlife holding and habitat removal permits) (2)(c); or
(f) The subject of the theft is a precursor substance.
Stronger measures come to my mind. Violent and extralegal.
Good for the Beaverton Police Department. It’s nice to know that there are jurisdictions where the police and prosecutors still go after cases that involve “mere” property crime.
When you start ignoring, what the Woke, and Social Justice Warriors define as the smaller crimes it protects those that move on to larger crimes. This philosophy does not protect those that do not commit crimes, those that do not take property that does not belong to them.
Some people in my family had a bitter experience with someone who they have helped out time and again (would it be mean to call him a “loser”?) who stole a couple thousand dollars in cash from them. The police eventually talked to said loser who admitted that he stole it. No surprise, I can only imagine how many pages it takes to print out this dude’s arrest record. Anyway, that visit and admission were as far as the case went. I don’t know if it’s the police department or the county attorney or state’s attorney who makes the call, but apparently the authorities have no interest in pursuing this any further.
“So the criminal must have paid back the money he stole?”, you ask. Ha ha ha. Apparently crime does pay in some jurisdictions, even if you are caught.
Oooh, you know that’s a paddlin’.
The victim of the theft did all the work setting up the fox. All the police had to do was take the man’s call and bag him.
And given the state of things today, no one’s going to look at this as a “mere” property crime.
I think it would be accurate. Only a loser would steal from the people who were already willingly helping him.