Stolen Gramophones / Phonographs

Where there is money, there are thieves and crooks - the field of Gramophones / phonpgraphs is no exception.

 

Edison Amberol Alarm Clock - Quebec Canada

 

The victim says "This is a long story. I met a Chinese guy at an antique show near Toronto last year where I had some phonographs and gramophones for sale. He explained that he was collecting clocks and wanted to open a museum in Toronto with clocks and phonographs. As I said I had a museum in Quebec he said that he will come to see it. The next Monday he was there and started a list of expensive machines he would buy. He bought and paid a music box for $1 500.00 and ask me if he could go with the alarm clock. We agreed on a price of $4 500.00 and he told me that he will deposit the money on my bank when back home. I was in confidence and after several days, he deposit $1 000.00 telling that the rest will be later, his money being in China.

In fact he never paid the rest, so I consider the machine as stolen. I had the reflex to take his car plate number (but it could be a rented one), but not enough to ask him his driving license."

 

Update: here a picture
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Dennis Y* & Stephen P*

The modus Operandi of these 2 was to visit viewings of Mechanical Music Auctions, and steal components from rarer / expensive machines. This would diminish the achieved prices as the machine was now "incomplete". it These 2 could purchase a, by theft, discounted machine.

Mysteriously a few months later the same machine complete with previously missing pieces would appear in the trade.

Both Dennis Y* and Stephen P* were banned from entering the premised of many auction houses.

Dennis Y* was also jailed for around 2 years for handling a stolen enigma machine. He died alone in his car at the side of a road.

 

Very rare EMG Soundbox - Cuttlestones Auction, Penkridge, England

 

If Dennis Y* and Stephen P* were alive, they may have been top suspects. So there are others who know how to drastically devalue a rare gramophone.

 

Does Cuttlestones Auction have a duty to inform the seller that the reproducer worth - lets say £1000 has disappeared while under their care, and must the seller be compensated?

Even more interesting, the lack of reproducer impacts the selling price, thus if the machine when complete would have brought say £8000, but in its current state only brings £2000, how would the seller be compensated the extra £6000 loss incurred because of the auctioneers lack of care, or do sellers sign some kind of waiver at consignment.

 

 

 

Apprentice made gramophone manufactured ca1980s - Runhällen, Heby, Upsalla, Sweden

This machine was bought via a Swedish auction site. The seller paid all item costs and transport costs as requested on the auction site. The seller G* started soon to make excuses as to why he could not immediately send the item. He did send 1 component, but the excuses continued. These excuses after 2 months evolved into extortion attempts where the seller wanted more money (than the total auction full hammer price) to send the main pieces of the purchase. The buyer to date has not received the gramophone that they correctly purchassed aligned with all the rules of the auction platform, and costs calculated by them.

With only great experiences, and many similar purchasses in Sweden, It may be possible that this perp is not Swedish.

The machine is nothing special, an artisanal creation probably by some apprentices to demonstrate their handywork - and not an antique.

Thus the fact that the Seller risking prosecution, as well as humiliation of his family, his neighbours and his community for a few hundred euro - is priceless.

Various features of the inside of his family home are also visible in the pictures.

 

 

Stolen antique gramophone takes centre stage in murder trial - South Africa

An antique gramophone became a key piece of evidence in a Johannesburg High Court murder trial. Two men stood trial for the killing of a marketing consultant during a robbery.

Thabo Seutloadi, 42, a Midrand marketing and advertising consultant was found dead in his bath. He had fought back when the suspects tied his hands and feet with coat.hangers and cables. The suspects also tired wire and cords around the victims neck.

Defendants: Lucky Ratabane, 38, and Moses Nxumalo, 35, charged with murder, aggravated robbery, and malicious damage to property; both pleaded not guilty.Stolen Loot: An antique gramophone, two televisions, a sound system, an iPad, an iPod, and a MacBook.Computer. Ratabane's ex-girlfriend, Alice Molefe, testified she saw the stolen gramophone and a slim TV in Ratabane's room weeks after the murder, despite the gramophone itself never being recovered by police.

 

picture of gramophone to follow

 

Stolen Edison phonograph from Chatham Historical Society - New Hampshire USA

 

An Edison Standard Phonograph has been stolen from the Chatham Historical Society sometime over the summer or fall. Not only does this piece have historic value for Chatham, it also has sentimental value for the family that donated it.
Anyone with information about this theft, please contact the Historical Society at [chathamnhhistoricalsociety@gmail.com](mailto:chathamnhhistoricalsociety@gmail.com), or at 603-694-3388 or 603-662-6935.

 

Fraud...yet again: Multi sale of same machine via Anibis. Geneva, Switzerland, France.

 

Looks like this scammer (seller name - probably identity theft - "Marti Werner" from Geneve) is back! Selling the same machine he has scammed people with before. The machine which a few people have paid for and not received is posted again by the same person. In all likelyhood the person is a resident of France. ANIBIS (Anibis.ch) seems to be notorious for allowing scammers to run free and uncontrolled over their site, according to Chatgpt, Google AI, Reddit, etc. Furthermore the AI programs advise against using Anibis at all, especially in particular during holiday times. That this item reappears for the 3rd or 4th time, despite warnings to Anibis, underpins the allegations that Anibis is the worst e-commerce site in Switzerland. Anibis of course make no attempt to verify seller identities (reddit).
Apparently customers complain ( on the rare occasion that they reach the helpdesk) that Anibis does not assist ripped off buyers, and allows scammers to continue using their platform!
Not sure how the justice system - when it acts - will decide ownership*. Hopefully Anibis will have to pay the defrauded buyers.

*Additional Info: it is reported that this person takes pictures of items at antique fairs, shops, or steals pictures from websites and then attempts to sell these items. We have a tip that this gramophone was photographed at an antique shop about 50km north east of Geneva, and sold in the course of normal business. Meaning that the fraudulent seller never actually owned the machine.

 

 

 


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