Slightly over a year and a half ago there was a significant amount of discussion here and on various other boards concerning the theft of locomotive parts, track material, and vandalism generally. This was during the period of inflated oil and scrap prices when even manhole covers were not safe from an ambitious eight-year-old with a coaster wagon. Quite a number of incidents reported were indeed related to scrap price but there were some which bore indications that the stolen material was being taken for its value as material -not as scrap- and, in a couple of truly despicable episodes, significant damage was done to some historic units in order to prevent their owners from putting them in service.

As it happened one of the principles in the damaged engines was having dinner with a a number of shortline colleagues and in the course of discussion he told the story of the damage to the units and why he (and the police) did not buy the host railroads' contention that the damage was done by druggies for the scrap value. Afterwards one of the others at dinner approached him and asked if one of the items missing from a particular unit was a particular piece of equipment. It was. It had been sitting in his basement since he had purchased it at a flea market shortly after the theft.

I have advised clients that if they are approached by a fan who has purchased an artifact or a piece of equipment (such as number boards or a radio) at a flea market or swap meet, and which that fan now suspects is stolen, that reimbursing the purchase price and possibly a cab ride is appropriate - and if possible to get a proper written statement from that fan on how he came into possession of the artifact.

If you see something for sale and simply does not feel right it does not hurt to make the call or send the e-mail.

I do not usually link to other fora, however I believe that in this case it is preferable to rehashing the entire episode. Please note the following URL from the Railroad.net New Jersey Forum
http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=127&t=60828
GME

Asking someone for a written statement isn't a bad thing, but only the most brainless foamer would do that. Receiving stolen property, even without knowledge that it's stolen, is a punishable offense in many places.
A good friend once returned a stolen garden gnome he found in his yard early one morning (he recognized it from two streets over) and the people who owned it was convinced that he'd stolen it and that he was retuning it only from a guilty conscience. Not only was he not thanked, he bought a misdemeanor for trafficking in stolen property for his troubles!