Any chance you got the serial #’s ?

They call the guy that defaulted on his storage fees? Anybody willing to pay to store them might be sore about losing them.

I was just about to post that this is the obvious answer as to who stole those two machines (or had someone else steal them).
The timing is too perfect. The opening of other lockers is just to help not make it look so obvious what the target was.
If you guys can't see that, then you need to get your, ...woops, Pinside is a friendly place.

The timing is too perfect for the owner that defaulted on keeping up w/ storage fees.
He waited til the auction finished. Heck, he may have been watching the auction online.

The defaulter would not break into several units to find these. Also I imagine they were coming back for the other 2 before Monday?

I can post something in the Carolina pinball and arcade collectors page. Maybe someone will see them for sale

My money would be on pinball enthusiasts, a perfect set was taken here. If the Caribbean Cruise that was not in a box with the obviously mouse eaten piece of paper on the playfield was not taken over one that was NIB then it was a collector. This was a pretty amazing find, all 4 machines were never routed there case fresh and recently a HUO/NIB with low use Caribbean Cruise was sold on ebay for $900. I would think either of these NIB Caribbean Cruise games should be worth $1,000-$1,200 each if not more. Night Moves have been selling recently between $900-$1,200 just the same.

Wow that really sucks. Will keep eyes open

I agree, prob a bidder that didn't win, or someone who missed it and saw it here on pinside after the fact.

All I had time to do was swing from one town to another with a loaded truck to pay for the machines before they closed. I did take pictures of them in the unit but 3 still being in boxes and one sealed I didn't get the serial numbers. IN hindsight it might have helped but as the three CC were shipped together chances are they are three numbers in series. We are about an hour outside of Charlotte, NC so there is a bigger market there. The pole they backed over and flattened had to cause some serious damage on a big truck. Heck on any truck. Didn't pull it out of the ground. Juts bent the post backwards flat on the ground taking the fence with it. I might guess that they wanted them for themselves and may not hit the market for a while. Not sure if they got spooked after two or not. But at least I still have 2. Thanks all.

Not a fan of the op trying to inflate the price. If a local collector knew of this auction having others suddenly interested would have inflated the price. Well meaning people ruin all sorts of deals for others.

Demand your money back. They've demonstrated an inability to secure their shit, especially just after they've sold it. What do you have to lose? Renter's insurance is gonna be a pain in the ass.

A friend of mine and me were bidding on these. He drove to the storage facility about an hour before the auction ended. He asked if he could see them and the storage company wouldn’t open the door. Not even for a little look..They said it was to remained sealed until the winning bidder arrived. We agreed to a max price and he ended up going to either 1300 or 1310 bidding online because they wouldn’t allow bids in person. We stopped at that point because we were concerned with possible acid and/or termite damage. We were thinking of keeping one each and selling the other 2 to pay for the whole venture. I’m sorry to hear about your bad fortune. I’m not sure if any of this helps?

The fault is on the stage company in my mind, their name was on the posting which a quick google search got you the address. The biggest mistake of them all was taking a picture showing which locker number they were stored in. Why would the thief want to bid on them when he could just steal them the night after the auction???

ChadNC, Little does he know how close that he came. My proxy bid was 1320. Once they take the pictures and put the seal on the lockers they can't be opened until the unit is paid for and the winner is at the location.They started this after too many things walked away during inspections. There have been many sticky finger employees that allocated items prior to the sale all over. The owner of the property in the unit has until the new owner removes the items to redeem them. State laws are different from State to State to include rent to own items, leased goods from the restaurant industry and other types of property. The other locks cut were a decoy and done far away from my unit. They may have been trying to buy time to come back and get the other two. Unit has been vacated so nothing left for them to steal. Jeff

Well I just wanted u to have some insight as to who the bidder before you was.. The bidding was at 1060 when we started.
Looks like maybe if there were Business near by they may could look at their video as to the comings and goings and what not. Best of luck

What seems a little crazy to me is to take a chance breaking in with all the CCTV's these days. Also - how did the guy that broke in know you had not already removed the machines unless it was an "inside job".

Think about it - with most storage unit auctions contents need to be removed right after the auction - these guys broke in the middle of the night the following night - in most cases contents would be long gone already! Something just does not make a lot of sense here? Girl at counter might be a good place for police to start? She was really the only one who knew machines were paid for and still in that unit.

Beyond that who is going to take just two machines once they break in? If you are going to take that risk most people would have grabbed all 4.

One last thing - it had to be two or more people unless it was done with a lift gate or ramp. So why would you not load all 4 once you have a ramp out? Getting "scared off" isn't really an answer because no one would know if you owned that unit or not if they saw someone emptying it. I rent several storage units here in PA and I don't have a clue who is coming or going when I am at the storage place. I have never met more then about 5 other renters in the 10 years I have been their and I am their almost daily.

The gentleman that has the unit next to it was onsite for over 4 hours allegedly "taking a nap". He was around when I opened the unit and then locked it with a disc lock. He does have a mechanical background and may have owned a rechargeable grinder. He also showed up out of the blue today to put a better lock on his locker because of the theft. I found it odd that he knew of the theft and drove there with a new lock before the manager even called me.

Strange story. Let's hope justice will be served.

The plot thickens..... definitely that guy

That does seem extremely.......odd.

Hope you get them back. I would like to buy a CC as I have a Night Moves if you want to sell one.

What if they’re in that guys unit right now. Ya only need to two guys to load if you are in fact loading. If he just dolly’d Them next door...no truck or help required. He drove over post getting outta there because he knew people would recognize him if he was seen.
I’d go stake out his unit tonight, see if he tries to move them now. Take a camcorder and a cell phone. Heck you could hide in your unit and just listen for his door to open.

Can't stand theives! Keep this topic at the top. Everyone needs to see this in case they hit the market somewhere.

Can you go to the local police station and tell them what you know? Maybe they can get a search warrant? He's just gonna hang onto them for like 2+ years.

Interesting!

In the Yelp link someone added earlier in this thread it said you can just stand on something and see inside neighboring lockers I'd definitely do that man maybe get a drone or selfie stick!

I'm actually surprised they went so cheep, you can tell no critters got into the NIB ones, and Gottlieb system 1 uses a lithium battery there fine! This auction should have gone for $2K-3K at least!

The gentleman has three total lockers he rents on site. He felt it necessary to open the locker next to me to show me his tools. It was all general household. They could have been taken to another onsite locker. The police came and did 6 reports. Took a lot of pictures and fingerprints. I am leaving it in the hands of the Police. Being a VET with bad PTSD I tend not to handle situations like this within the norms of society. Not worth me going to jail over if I lose my cool. The Officer and the LT will do what they can and do have some evidence to go on. It wouldn't surprise me if they never left the facility.

You mean inpinsider job

Post an ad on the local craigslist saying you are looking to add these particular machines to your collection and are willing to trade crack for them.

I have a hard time believing that. I think this is locals with familiarity.

I will provide updates from the Police as I receive them.

Hope you find them! It really pisses me off that people would do this.
Being ex Military also I fully understand why you are not getting more involved or doing anything yourself. It would only cause more problems for yourself...better to let the Police do their job.

As the good book says, let the man who hasn't driven to his storage unit in the south in late July to take a four-hour nap cast the first stone.

This is so sad! I hope the bastards get caught!

We know for a fact it's somebody from Pinside; but who?

3/4ths naked Greg anyone?

Most likely someone familiar with that storage facility.

I agree with those that say that it was somebody very familiar with the facility. Knowing the location, angle of all of the cameras, what ones to move to escape detection, the colors of the locks that indicated the status of the lockers. The story from "Mr Nap Man" was full of holes. But since my locker was the only one that had items stolen the Police may not get too involved. Since I have renters insurance they might not see it as a "loss" to me reducing the effort to solve it. Time will tell as the security tapes may show the individual/s that moved the cameras, Only time will tell. Mickey I am glad that another VET understands why I am standing back from this. I don't rock orange.

Ur a veternarian? J/k, thank you for your service and sacrifices. We all owe you a debt.

May have a lead as a replacement rubber ring kit was purchased today from a seller in SC. Trying to determine if the buyer is also from NC. Just unusual that two kits were purchased by the same person with the seller being in the local area. Jay I come from a Military family. Between my Uncles, Father and myself we put in 140 years.

Be careful sharing info. They can read this too.

Mcluvin I want them to have a bug in their shorts. If it is them that bought the kit this morning imagine the OH SH@T factor they are experiencing now. The police can get the buyers info to see if they are the ones. Out of a total of 827 machines between CC and NM what would the chances be of somebody buying a kit this morning. Now if the bidder is from NC my money is on they will be rocking the orange.

Yeah but the pins get burned or dumped in the woods if they get spooked.

Imagine walking through the woods and stumbling on both those pins NIB, I would never bitch again about taking nature walks lol

With your luck, the cops would pull up just as you got the 2nd one loaded into your truck....

Haha and I'd be the hotest pinside thread for years! All my loving friends here would be so vindicated! lol

Maybe I’m wrong but this seems like it would be simple to solve..
1. You have to have a code to get into the facility.
2. They moved the cameras which have a time/date stamp usually.
3. Look at the film and what time the cameras were moved and see who entered the lot in the previous 10 minutes or so
4. Eliminate the impossible and what remains no matter how improbable must be the truth.

Well mister downvote, look at this way. You put a big spotlight on this auction. From what people have said others knew about this and were bidding and you just brought them more competition. It doesn't matter if it sold for 10 dollars or 10k your good intentions have a bad outcome for those who learn about relatively unknown deals.