MetaFilter posts tagged with theft

"This is dog manure in the shape of a bicycle." Hal grades your locking.

maudlin — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 10:41:42 -0800

"This is the lock you got from your parents when you were 8." "I could chew through this lock." Hal Grades Your Bike Locking (2003). Hal (and Kerri) Grade Your Bike Locking (2008). Hal Grades Your Bike Locking 3: The Final Warning! (2009) Skip to the last one unless if you're not truly dedicated to locking minutiae. (via)

Bank insider steals 200 billion

Argyle — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 09:00:17 -0800

Bank insider steals 200 billion - a director in EBank in Eve Online has stolen 200 billion ISK (approximately 10% of deposits), engaging in real money trading to fence his loot. Equivalent to ~US$12,000, the theft has left Ebank with concerns over liquidity, security, auditor failure, and a run on the bank by investors. Unlike the real world, there is no government bail-out.

The Napoleon of Crime

Arbac — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 09:10:16 -0800

Scotland Yard called him the the Napoleon of Crime. The Pinkertons called him the most remarkable criminal of them all. Adam Worth started as a pickpocket in New York and eventually became one of the greatest criminals of all time and the inspiration behind Sherlock Holmes' nemesis Professor Moriarty. One of Worth's famous thefts is considered the first modern art theft. In 1876 Adam Worth stole Thomas Gainsborough's The Duchess of Devonshire after it was recently sold at auction for 10,000 guineas, making it the most expensive painting ever sold at the time. Worth kept the painting until 1901, when the Pinkertons helped him ransom the painting back to the Agnew & Sons gallery he stole it from (Agnew & Sons then sold the painting to JP Morgan, who's father had original intended to buy the painting from Agnew before the theft). Worth intended to use the ransom money to retire from his life of crime. He died one year later in 1902. Listen to the story of the daring theft at The Association for Research into Crimes Against Art's (ARCA) first podcast.

Protect Yourself, Your Family, Your Identity

netbros — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:42:49 -0800

The commercials are all over television — and they certainly are attention-grabbing. They’re the ones where the heavy, bald guy is sitting in his easy chair talking in a squeaky female voice about all the clothes he bought — including a bustier. Or the little old lady speaking with the gruff voice of a younger man about the sweet motorcycle she now owned. Identity theft is a serious crime — one that is occurring with an alarming frequency. The Identity Theft Manifesto explains how criminals get your personal info, and what you can do about it.

Accidental movement of large sums of money to the wrong people.

johannahdeschanel — Thu, 21 May 2009 00:08:22 -0800

Couple flee after bank mistakenly gives them 10m $

Literal lunacy.

myopicman — Thu, 14 May 2009 21:15:02 -0800

Back in 2002, 4 interns pulled off an unusual heist: they stole a quarter tonne of moon rocks under NASA's nose, which reads like a surreal pulp. [via jwz] It's a mix of social engineering and bizarre science, handy on the off-chance you're looking for an extra-terrestrial gemstone.

Viva La Vida - A Copy of a Copy?

spaceboy86 — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:28:35 -0800

Did "Auto-Tune the News" guy accidentally write Coldplay's Viva La Vida? Michael Gregory, aka Auto-Tune the News guy (previously) talks about how his shower singing was turned into something eerily similar to Viva La Vida. The Creaky Boards claim their song was plagiarized by Coldplay; Michael claims to have been plagiarized by the Creaky Boards.

The Bicyce Thief

fixedgear — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 13:48:58 -0800

someonestolemybike.com Videos of folks who have had bikes stolen. Kristy chased the thief down and got hers back.

Vultures, vultures everywhere

MrVisible — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 10:16:19 -0800

Will the declining economy trigger a wave of burglaries? The answer seems to be a definitive maybe. There's no doubt, however, that property crime is a popular pastime of late. There are, fortunately, a lot of resources on burglary prevention. It might also be time to consider insurance. This is the research I wish I'd done, and paid attention to, a couple of weeks ago. I hope this will motivate some Metafilterians to safeguard their stuff.

Sign Stealing

augustweed — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 18:07:22 -0800

Caught on Video: Stealing Obama Sign , and again, and again, and again, and this crazy lady, here, here, and here.! WTF . . . over.

I think there is something missing here.

ooklala — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 16:43:42 -0800

An entire beach in Jamaica has been stolen. Although much of the sand has been found, it is estimated that it will take up to 100 years for the beach to be rebuilt. People now think that there is a coverup operation. In Jamaica, sand theft is not uncommon as sand is an ingredient for concrete (which is used for building homes), but theft on such a large scale has never before happened (unless you count the time when an artificial beach in Hungary was stolen)

Where do the stolen bikes go?

Chuckles — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:28:38 -0800

Igor Kenk was arrested for bicycle theft in Toronto on July 17. Here's an audio documentary that includes an interview with the man himself: Steal This Bike (be warned, a lot of profanity, and a little pretentious). via. Wow!

Is $40000 fair punishment for setting up a fake Facebook profile?

dabitch — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:02:00 -0800

£17,000 damages for victim of fake Facebook profile. Matthew Firsht found a fake facebook profile created in his name, and he has successfully sued the person who did it. Amol Rajan knows exactly what having your facebook online ID 'stolen' feels like, as do many others. Are your social networking friends always who they say they are?

Viacom will steal your film

njohnson23 — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:30:28 -0800

Now Viacom will STEAL your movie Viacom has claimed ownership of an independent filmmaker's film and now she has to fight them for it. They allow her to leave it on YouTube but they claim ownership and they get to collect data on who's watching.

Twas mine, tis his, and has been slave to thousands

Horace Rumpole — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:48:09 -0800

How did this man end of with a copy of the most iconic book in the English language? He says he got it from a friend in Cuba, but the Folger Library has identified it as the copy of Shakespeare's First Folio stolen from Durham University in 1988. Turns out that stealing the book is much easier than selling it.

Babies are jerks, am I right?

Caduceus — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:01:49 -0800

As we were talking about Joke Theft, here's an interesting case. It appears that the Daily Show may have stolen a joke from Penny Arcade. Certainly, the similarities are there. I personally suspect that it was an unconscious joke theft on the part of one of the writers, reusing something they forgot they saw elsewhere. Assuming it's theft at all; certainly, I only punch babies when they're being dicks, so it's not that much of a stretch.

Fffffffffffffffff v. Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Navelgazer — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:35:06 -0800

Take the Funny and Run , a history of notorious joke-thieves from Milton Berle and Robin Williams to Denis Leary, Carlos Mencia (previously) and Dane Cook.

Pursuing Purloined Papers

amyms — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 00:27:38 -0800

To Catch A Thief. How a Civil War buff's chance discovery led to a sting, a raid and a victory against traffickers in stolen historical documents. Related article: Pay Dirt in Montana. And photo gallery.

Penis-Theft Victims Get Testy

Navelgazer — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:51:12 -0800

Koro, previously, has gripped the streets of Kinshasa, Congo. Unlike the 1967 Koro Epidemic in Singapore, which was blamed on tainted pork, the afflicted men in Kinshasa have blamed the psychosomatic penile shrinkage on witchcraft by a rival sect, and responded with attempted lynchings. In order to prevent bloodshed of the kind seen in Ghana a decade ago, police have responded by apprehending the alleged sorcerers. Note: this post is about the historical epidemics, but I suggest going to the "previously" for greater discussion of the actual disorder. If, you know, that's your thing.

Se necesita una poca de gracia

Sys Rq — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 09:28:04 -0800

"I mean he quite literally -- and in no way do I exaggerate when I say -- [Paul Simon] stole the songs from us." Steve Berlin of Los Lobos talks about the making of Paul Simon's triumphant 1986 comeback, Graceland, in an interview on JamBase. (via, via)

If any of these pictures appear on your friends wall, he's better off than he is letting on.

dogbusonline — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 07:46:22 -0800

A trio of thieves have made off with over $150 Million in art from E.G. Buehrle Museum in Zurich, Switzerland. The four stolen paintings are Cézanne's The Boy in Red Waistcoat, Degas's Viscount Ludovic Lepic and His Daughter, Monet's Poppy Field Near Vetheuil and Van Gogh's Blooming Chestnut Branches. This comes only two weeks after 2 Picasso pieces were stolen in Pfaeffikon, Switzerland. No one has been caught in either thefts. Experts guesstimate that over 170,000 pieces of art are missing including 167 Renoirs, 166 Rembrandts, 175 Warhols and more than 200 works by Dali.
Somewhat unrelated, Russia has recently created a database of all art that is missing because of looting during World War 2. Unfortunately, It can only be viewed in Russian

Theft recovery

tristeza — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 15:59:54 -0800

Juststolen.net "was created by police officers to provide the best possible asset tracking and property recovery services in the world. JustStolen.net is an innovative tool designed to easily register assets in order to facilitate their recovery if they are lost or stolen. JustStolen.net joins forces with online auctions to help identify stolen property."

The Bone Trade

serazin — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 22:49:42 -0800

For 200 years, the city has been the center of a shadowy network of bone traders who snatch up skeletons in order to sell them to universities and hospitals abroad. In colonial times, British doctors hired thieves to dig up bodies from Indian cemeteries. Despite changes in laws, a similar process is going strong today. (More on the unsettling subject of the human bone trade from the author of the first link, and his Wired article too. And Photos.) Via the excellent Sepia Mutiny.

Gnome invasion

baphomet — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 11:50:15 -0800

You wake up in the morning and step outside for a breath of fresh air. Groggy and coffee-less, it takes you a moment to notice that your yard has been invaded by lawn gnomes. Don't be a victim. Conversely, become a part of the problem. Missing a loved one? Don't forget, MeFites around Springfield, Oregon- If you're feeling generous, head down to the police station this coming Tuesday to give a gnome a good home.

When is being raped at gunpoint not being raped?

Rev. Syung Myung Me — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 07:28:15 -0800

Hooker raped & robbed by justice system. Apparently, if you're a prostitute and you're gang-raped at gunpoint, that's not actually rape, but "theft of services". In Philadelphia, judge Teresa Carr Deni ruled exactly that in a case where a woman posted a Craigslist ad offering sex for money -- but when she met with her John, instead of the agreed upon exhange, he pulled a gun on her, raped her, then invited four other men to rape her as well. As if this weren't sad enough, a near-identical case -- with the same defendant -- came up four days later, and the prosecutor decided not to even try it as to not put the woman through the misery of being so resoundly denied justice. Devolution is real, spuds.