Hi everyone! I’m a long time lurker, first time poster. I hope this makes a good first impression. I’m surprised no one has mentioned this yet.
So I heard about this a week ago, but didn’t think much of it, figuring it was just another Rupert Rumor. But the other day, I was lurking around, and found a website that reports there was in fact an eBay scam involving a local jewellery store and one of it’s (I would presume) ex employees!
Apparently the woman stole in excess of $100,000 of merchandise since April 2006, and was selling it on eBay for a mere fraction of what it was worth!
It looks like the website was set up to alert possible victims who bid on more items after the fact, as it appears the woman continued to list items after she had been busted by the RCMP.
I heard about this last week as well… and that was the first thing that came to mind… how the hell did they not notice stuff go missing?
Funny thing is… I actually bid on some of the lady’s stuff, but never won anything. If you search for auctions within x km’s of your postal code, you’ll find all the auctions stating their location as Prince Rupert. Harris and Wick has had auctions on there before as well, but they are selling them for far more than that chick was. There were many of her auctions that went for not even 1/10th of the retail price.
Yeah I heard about this awhile back (a few days ago). Apparently some females who I know knew this lady and said she was a very energetic and accomodating sales lady. The story about how she got caught amused me.
Well , I am shocked to hear and now know these things happen in a place such Prince Rupert. It makes for some interesting reading about what may go down in this good oltown , next we will be dealing with everything a Big City is made of. I am shocked.
It says right on that webpage that there was a private party that had copies of all the ebay auctions both running and closed, of the stolen goods, saved on a jumpdrive. That private party then took the information to the owner, and then contacted the RCMP.
The amusing part is that the woman responded to a question regarding shipping, and included her full name and email address. This was one of the big things that got her caught.
Another employee of the store also positively identified pictures of the stolen goods that had already been sold on ebay, as stock that had gone missing.
A friend of mine is very close to the case… it was pretty sweet to find out he had a big part in busting her
Hello Mike, and others. There are perhaps others too who cannot wait for this to come to court and that court date has been set for October 6th. So if there are any other students not in school that day, head on down and be a witness as the charged person gets sentenced.
You asked, how does that much in merchandise (in excess of CDN$100,000.00) go missing from a retailer and the retailer not knowing about it? Its a little complex, but I’ll try and fill in the missing blanks to give you a better picture of how this ‘theft’ was executed.
The person charged, had been an employee of Cooks Jewelers at one of their locations in the Rupert Square Mall. Keeping in mind that these two locations are not the only two stores operated by Cooks. When the store in the mall closed, it had remaining stock, which became stock of the main store which migrated on over along with the clerk. Inventory was a key fault and whether or not the clerk new this, was removing items piece by piece, day by day. I had been watching this particular entity for just over a year, so its not like Cooks lost their merchandise overnight. Had THAT been the case, she wouldn’t have fallen into my radar scope. Granted there were a few ‘finger print pieces’, which isolated items from that of other retailers, such as gold nuggets and native carved jewelry, it was diffucult for the store to deteremine there was any stock missing prior to any inventory being taken. On the norm, stores and merchants take inventory once a year. However, there is a specific process in so doing when it comes to Cooks, that process I cannot relay at this time but what I can say is that inventory was pending. I can also say that they already knew of a few pieces that they were unable to locate and were in talks regarding those few pieces. However, they were totally knocked off guard when they were presented with documentation and images of supporting theft of their items in excess of CDN$100,000.00.
The point I was trying to drive home was the fact that the merchandise illegally removed from the store, was not done overnight. It was slowly done for over a year.
Sorry, but I am unfamiliar with that term. She is a Canadian citizen, which citizenship was aquired shortly before the ‘bust’. She is originally from Russia. I hope this answers your question.
I have amended my earlier post regarding the court date. I understand the date is October 6th. In any event, if there are any who are interesting in attending court to witness the sentencing, you can always ring the courthouse the day before to verify the court docket for the following day. I am uncertain as to the privacy policy of this particular board, so will withdraw from mentioning the name of the person charged. If you send me a pm, I will be more than happy to provide you with that information.
[quote=“hankaspanka”]
In any event, if there are any who are interesting in attending court to witness the sentencing, you can always ring the courthouse the day before to verify the court docket for the following day. [/quote]
I would advise doing that if you are interested in this case and want to observe. Court dates change quickly depending on a lot of factors. A quick phone call will avoid wasting your time since you could end up waiting around all day for something that isn’t scheduled to happen at all.
