Lou wrote:
On Sep 11, 6:03 pm, Matt Whiting wrote:
JGalban via AviationKB.com wrote:
Matt Whiting wrote:
Given what little you know about the attempt, I would do nothing. I
think reporting this would simply we wasting the time of the police.
I agree. Since you don't know when or where it happened, and nothing was
taken, the cops are going to have zero interest in this.
When I actually had an avionics theft back in '96, I couldn't even get the
cops to come out to the airport. They just took a report over the phone so I
could put in an insurance claim.
In real life, all of those ominous signs at the airport about it being a
federal offense to tamper with aircraft are just window dressing. If it's
just a property crime, no one really cares.
That was my experience exactly. I had a KX165 stolen from my 182 around
1998. The police had zero interest in the theft other than giving me
what I needed for the insurance claim.

The really interesting part is that I bought a used KX165 from one of
the avionics shops in Florida (I forget the name now, but one of the
larger ones not a fly-by-night outfit) and, you guessed it, found that
it was MY radio! I thought the wear on the bezel looked a little too
familiar and a serial number checked confirmed it. I called the
avionics retailed and they had bought it yellow-tagged from a smaller
avionics shop in Ohio. I called them and they had failing memory and
couldn't remember where they got it. I reported it to the NY state
police and they couldn't have cared less. They said that for the value
in question it wasn't worth their while. They suspected it was stolen
by someone driving west on route 17 which runs right by our airport and
then fenced the next day to the Ohio shop who asked no questions and
probably paid in cash.

Matt

So just my own curiosity, couldn't you press charges of selling stolen
goods?
Lou

I'm not a lawyer so I can't say for sure, but the police made it clear
they weren't interested in pursuing it. Could I have convinced Florida
to pursue the avionics retailer? Maybe, but it wasn't worth it to try
to pursue a case in a state 1,000 miles away.

Matt