(Topic ID: 302909)

Alert! Stolen Pinball TMNT - Update!!! It has been recovered!

By tigzzz

2 years ago


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Topic Stats

  • 340 posts
  • 161 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 1 year ago by JethroP
  • Topic is favorited by 46 Pinsiders

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There are 340 posts in this topic. You are on page 7 of 7.
#301 2 years ago

sounds to me like this is ripe for a Insider Connect feature, findmypinball

#302 2 years ago
Quoted from shovelhed:

cartert, I call total bullshit on your statements about Law Enforcement using evidence for personal gain. The Officers would lose their jobs and it goes against what they stand for. You have watched to much Reno 911.

I've picked up more than a few confiscated bingos and other gambling machines that ended up in cop's basements over the years. I'm sure I'm not alone.

#303 2 years ago
Quoted from DennisDodel:

I've picked up more than a few confiscated bingos and other gambling machines that ended up in cop's basements over the years. I'm sure I'm not alone.

Everyone knows cops cant play pinball

#304 2 years ago
Quoted from jasonp:

Everyone knows cops cant play pinball
//<![CDATA[
window.__mirage2 = {petok:"36fd1f950f34d5687c60cfe8eb57cd2121448c5d-1639629019-1800"};
//]]>

Checks out…

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#305 2 years ago
Quoted from gdonovan:

I personally know of a few cases, friend of mine dad is retired state police.
Perhaps you should Google about state police seizing cash from people during routine traffic stops.

civil asset forfeiture should be a crime. Just like that lady who had her 100k seized at the airport recently

#306 2 years ago
Quoted from shovelhed:

cartert, I call total bullshit on your statements about Law Enforcement using evidence for personal gain. The Officers would lose their jobs and it goes against what they stand for. You have watched to much Reno 911.

That's adorable. You don't think crooked cops take drugs and money from evidence?

#307 2 years ago
Quoted from ChipScott:

Yeah, this all worked out great. Thanks again and great work, Isaac / ripple !
Yeah, Isaac sent me a picture that he was sent of the game. I mean, who the heck lifts up a back box halfway up to show that the game "turns on" during a legit pinball sale!!
I could tell by what I could see on the playfield that it included the all mods that I had made/put in it and Isaac was good to ask for more pictures. When I saw the pic of the coinbox, it had included a few extras that I had originally put in there for the OP (Rick)...some complimentary rubber stoppers, some of the Pinmonk gels still in their package that I had not installed, as well as some dome covers in factory bags that I had not changed out yet. It all matched up!!!
At that point, I knew that that was the game.
I was the third owner of that game and after speaking with isaac, a couple days before these dudes were going to arrive, I spent much of the afternoon on the phone ultimately getting back to the original owner (who actually runs an arcade about 3 hours from my house). Turns out, it really wasn't even his, as much as it was his friends that also works at that arcade. But it just so happens that this arcade owner is fairly diligent with his paperwork and when I reached out to him, he was actually able to not only pull out a picture of the back of the game with its serial number, but he also still had the original warranty! Let's hear it for DreamTR (thanks again, Jason!).
Once we had that serial number, I was able to give it to the OP (Rick), and from there, the police were able to get that into the police report. That was a key move, because having that serial number in the official police report gave the Boise Idaho cops (where Isaac lives) the right to hold the machine.
I spoke with the Boise Idaho detectives the following day after the game was secured at the Boise Idaho Police station and gave them the official bill of sale that had associated documentation stating that this was money from Rick to me for the TMNT pinball machine. That was all the detective needed to work with Rick to get the game back to him. Got a text from OP/Rick yesterday...sounds like they have already released the machine and he has already spoken with Michelle at STI/CRST to get the game delivered to his house!!!
Unbelievable.
I've been calling it "CSI:Boise Idaho", haha
Awesome job everyone!!!!!!!!
-Chip

This should be a Key Post too!!

Now can we get the same ending for that infamous BBB stolen way back?

#308 2 years ago

Just curious if you have received the game yet?

I am glad everything is working out for you, finally.

-15
#309 2 years ago
Quoted from ripple:

So here is the story. I got a text on Thursday from my wanted to buy ad asking if I wanted to buy a new TMNT with a picture of a moded machine. At first I did not remember about the stolen machine and I replied it was not new but might be interested. He said make an offer and I said maybe 5K. The person said great and he was 3 hours from Boise and would bring it to me on Sunday. This was the fishiest offer I have ever received to buy machine and after a couple of hours I remembered about the stolen machine. Everything lined up from the mods this was the stolen machine. I contacted tigzz and chipscott and confirmed this was the case. I called the Boise police Friday morning and spoke with an officer. He said there was nothing they could do at this point since no crime was committed in Idaho. I said how about we lure the person here and the police pretend to be me on Sunday to recover the machine. He said maybe but I don’t work on Sunday so you would need to talk to someone on Sunday. At this point I decided I would need to be the lead on this or the recovery might not happen. After this point the police were excellent in there response. I stayed in contact with the seller and just acted like it was a normal purchase. The big break at this point is the serial number was tracked down. Now we have a police report and a serial number!
So Sunday comes and I call back the police. The police agree to wait down the road and we will call them as soon as the machine is in the garage. First they are supposed to arrive at 1:00 then they push that back to 2:00 then they push it back to 3:00. At this point the police are changing shifts and a different police team is on standby. Finally they show up. 3 guys in maybe their late 20’s. The seller comes off as pretty nice and harmless but I can not say that for his 2 friends. Just as we are getting the legs on 3 cop cars roll up. I say “ come on in guys “ to the officers. They have 4 officers and proceed with questioning. I couldn’t hear the entire story but basically the seller said “ I have a junk shop in a tiny town and someone stopped in and said they needed gas money. The machine was still strapped to the pallet. He offered them $300 and they took it.”
The police took forever to do everything. I explained 3 times the whole story and mostly sat around for couple of hours hanging out and waiting. No arrests were made and they drove away. I did send pictures to chipscott to see if any were the original thief. It’s pretty amazing these guys didn’t have anything else illegal going on. Their car was searched. Eventually a detective shows up on his day off. I could not talk the police out of taking the machine as evidence and I did have a letter to act as tigzzz agent. The police said the matter was being referred to the prosecutor and it could take months to release the machine.
I want to give a special shout out to my pinball posse. When some voice were literally telling me not to get involved and this could be a risk to me, my pinball posse took time out of their day to stand behind me so I wouldn’t be out manned for those couple of minutes before the police rolled in. I am so happy to be involved in the recovery of this machine and would be happy to help in picking it up from the authorities and getting it to the owner when the time comes.

Amazing how worthless the police are in this matter. Unbelievable.

13
#310 2 years ago
Quoted from woody76:

Amazing how worthless the police are in this matter. Unbelievable.

At least the police backed up Ripple and made sure that the machine got directed to the rightful owner.
They also have some new suspects to watch for fencing stolen items in their area when they want to.
Karma could always come back around at some point when they do something really obvious.

22
#311 2 years ago
Quoted from woody76:

Amazing how worthless the police are in this matter. Unbelievable.

I'm not sure what you expect from the police... I'd bet more cars get stolen off the street every single day in that jurisdiction that are worth more than the pin was worth and there isn't a whole lot that can be done about those either. Like a lot of us the police are likely understaffed and overworked. Also like a lot of us, I suspect they have their priorities given to them and finding stolen goods just isn't one of them unless it lands in their laps.

Until I'm ready to get out from behind my keyboard where I work for a living and grab a gun and a badge to risk my life to track down stolen goods I'll limit what negative things I have to say about the police force.

18
#312 2 years ago
Quoted from woody76:

Amazing how worthless the police are in this matter. Unbelievable.

It's amazing how fucking worthless stupid people seem to be about police matters. Believe it.

#313 2 years ago

Amen brother ^^^^^^^

23
#314 2 years ago
Quoted from woody76:

Amazing how worthless the police are in this matter. Unbelievable.

Are you kidding?! They did a hell of a lot more than I would expect for a stolen pinball. It’s not a kidnapping, drunk driver, active shooter, or immediate threat to human life. There’s tons of goods stolen and burglaries every day in every city. You think the police have time and resources to chase down every suspect. Get real. Besides stepping in, you have no idea if they are looking into the ‘pawn shop’ owners more now.. if they fence stolen goods it’s probably a great lead.

32
#315 2 years ago
Quoted from JohnnyPinball007:

Just curious if you have received the game yet?
I am glad everything is working out for you, finally.

I haven't gotten the game yet, but the police have released it and Michelle @ Beltmann has confirmed that shipping is setup. I will post pics when it makes it home

37
#316 2 years ago
Quoted from woody76:

Amazing how worthless the police are in this matter. Unbelievable.

My daughter was a police officer (detective now) in a town of 60,000. She patrolled from 4pm until 2am. They only had 4 officers patrolling during that time. She spent 110% of her time working stolen cars, domestic disturbances, robbery, business alarms, assaults, breaking and entering, etc. All of this while most of the public looked down on them and harassed them on calls especially during the summer of 2020. Probably one of the most thankless jobs there is. And people still bitch when they aren't catching speeders on their street or dropping everything to look for a stolen pinball machine.

#317 2 years ago

I can’t believe that she’s a detective now. It seems that she was a teenager not too long ago.

#318 2 years ago
Quoted from hlaj78:

I can’t believe that she’s a detective now.

Yes! And I sleep much better now knowing that.

1 week later
15
#319 2 years ago

Amazing work Ripple. Had two or three pages to catch up on, and glad that the machine was recovered. There was a very slim chance of that happening, but all the cards fell into place.

Congrats to OP, and to seller for alleviating his worry. Definitely lessons to be learned in this thread.

2 weeks later
59
#320 2 years ago

Modfather was kind enough to send me not 1 but 2 free shooter rods as a reward for helping to recover the machine. So I thought I’d give a review of the rods. The first purple rod adds the highest level of protection for you machine by making uniquely recognizable. Want your stolen machine to be identifiable from a grainy picture taken 20 feet away? This is the rod for you. In addition the rippling effects in the knob will allow any detective to match your machine like a finger print. The second rod will strike fear in the heart of any would be criminal. Godzilla’s cold dead eyes will tell any meth head “ Don’t even think about stealing this machine and driving 2000 miles across country to make a $300 profit. “ The only way to add top security to your machine is to purchase a shooter rod from Modfather today!

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#321 2 years ago
Quoted from ripple:

Modfather was kind enough to send me not 1 but 2 free shooter rods as a reward for helping to recover the machine. So I thought I’d give a review of the rods. The first purple rod adds the highest level of protection for you machine by making uniquely recognizable. Want your stolen machine to be identifiable from a grainy picture taken 20 feet away? This is the rod for you. In addition the rippling effects in the knob will allow any detective to match your machine like a finger print. The second rod will strike fear in the heart of any would be criminal. Godzilla’s cold dead eyes will tell any meth head “ Don’t even think about stealing this machine and driving 2000 miles across country to make a $300 profit. “ The only way to add top security to your machine is to purchase a shooter rod from Modfather today!
[quoted image]

Ripple approved, that’s all I need to know. Take my $!

10
#322 2 years ago

....Very Cool....Thanks for the shout out. Chuck

#323 2 years ago

Good work Issac.

#324 2 years ago
Quoted from ripple:

Modfather was kind enough to send me not 1 but 2 free shooter rods as a reward for helping to recover the machine. So I thought I’d give a review of the rods. The first purple rod adds the highest level of protection for you machine by making uniquely recognizable. Want your stolen machine to be identifiable from a grainy picture taken 20 feet away? This is the rod for you. In addition the rippling effects in the knob will allow any detective to match your machine like a finger print. The second rod will strike fear in the heart of any would be criminal. Godzilla’s cold dead eyes will tell any meth head “ Don’t even think about stealing this machine and driving 2000 miles across country to make a $300 profit. “ The only way to add top security to your machine is to purchase a shooter rod from Modfather today!
[quoted image]

This needs to be a commercial. Modfather custom CRIMESTOPPER shooter rods.

#325 2 years ago

Did they actually make it 2000 miles with that game? I wasn’t following how far they got..

#326 2 years ago
Quoted from Mbecker:

Did they actually make it 2000 miles with that game? I wasn’t following how far they got..

Yeah, don't know the exact miles, but they made it from West Tennessee to someplace in Nevada. It was through that Nevada location that Isaac caught word of the ad from his town in Boise, Idaho. Sounds like it was close enough that they were willing to drive the game from their Nevada shop to his home with the game, and ultimately that's how the pin got secured

#327 2 years ago
Quoted from tigzzz:

I haven't gotten the game yet, but the police have released it and Michelle @ Beltmann has confirmed that shipping is setup. I will post pics when it makes it home

Any news? I need to see that pin set up and playing where it belongs after all it’s been thru.

11
#328 2 years ago
Quoted from swillie:

Any news? I need to see that pin set up and playing where it belongs after all it’s been thru.

It has made it to Colorado, but it is just sitting at the Beltmann depo as far as I can tell. It should be here on Friday

#329 2 years ago
Quoted from tigzzz:

It has made it to Colorado, but it is just sitting at the Beltmann depo as far as I can tell. It should be here on Friday

I guess that’s pretty good news! Here’s to it arriving safe and is up and running without much fuss/issues.

#330 2 years ago

please post pics of it set up. nice to see a happy ending to such a bizarre bad situation.

90
#331 2 years ago

Success! The happy ending is complete and the pinball that took a detour of thousands of miles has come home. That is the police evidence report in the picture. The game seems to be perfect and no worse for the wear.

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#332 2 years ago

Hallelujah!

#333 2 years ago
Quoted from tigzzz:

Success! The happy ending is complete and the pinball that took a detour of thousands of miles has come home. That is the police evidence report in the picture. The game seems to be perfect and no worse for the wear.
[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]

Congratulations! I hope you frame the report and hang next to this pin. Or make it a topper.

#334 2 years ago
Quoted from tigzzz:

Success! The happy ending is complete and the pinball that took a detour of thousands of miles has come home. That is the police evidence report in the picture. The game seems to be perfect and no worse for the wear.
[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]

Man that machine looks great to be a stolen item.
I would scan in that police report so the document is never lost if I was you.
That should be a like a part of the history of that machine now.
Might even be fingerprints on it somewhere from the thieves if you haven't wiped it down already.

#335 2 years ago

Awesome!

I love that speaker kit. Any info on it?

Quoted from tigzzz:

Success! The happy ending is complete and the pinball that took a detour of thousands of miles has come home. That is the police evidence report in the picture. The game seems to be perfect and no worse for the wear.
[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]

#336 2 years ago
Quoted from tigzzz:

Success! The happy ending is complete and the pinball that took a detour of thousands of miles has come home. That is the police evidence report in the picture. The game seems to be perfect and no worse for the wear.
[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]

Very cool. What a story...wow.

#338 2 years ago

Wow. Thats awesome. Great to see everything worked out.

#339 2 years ago

Hip hip Hooray ... couldn't ask for a better ending

2 months later
#340 1 year ago
Quoted from tigzzz:

Success! The happy ending is complete and the pinball that took a detour of thousands of miles has come home. That is the police evidence report in the picture. The game seems to be perfect and no worse for the wear.

So now you are in possession of stolen property! What a story. Enjoy!

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