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ebay seller arrested today and scrappers off the streets.

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ebay seller arrested today and scrappers off the streets.
These pins were not scrappers as the title of this post states, they are counterfeits. There is a difference. If they were sending authentic pins and they were reproducing them they are counterfeit, they have infringed on a trademark. Scrappers are the pins that get toss on the floor as seconds from the molds that Disney has run at their factories.
 
Nobody can say either way what the facts really are. Just because one shipment was 150 pounds doesn't mean they all were, and just because the article said they sent over pins to be copied that doesn't mean that is the only way it was done, etc. etc....it may very well have been a mix of counterfeits and scrappers. Doesn't really matter, both are garbage.

Whether it be a story about counterfeit Disney pins or politics, new stories should taken with a grain of salt. Take away the key points that you can but keep in mind that just because it is in print that doesn't mean it is true or accurate. I'd bet that not a single person involved in the investigation really knows anything about Disney pins so I find it difficult to believe the dollar value estimate they reported.
 
My bet is that these guys were supplying multiple dealers. They are probably not the only ones doing so. Glad they are shut down.
 
wmcdow said:
The 3 strikes thing is insane! It should scare everyone straight. I've heard a lot of cases with this law. 1 guy stole a couple of times as an adolescent (unarmed). 10 years later, he cheated on his driver's test. Got 26 years to life.

Another guy's 3rd strike was stealing a dvd (also unarmed) 25 years to life.
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ACtually most of that is not true. People do not get 25 to life for the minor infractions unless their first two were something major. That has been spread around by the anti-3 strikes people to get Californians to vote against it. It never works.
 
After reading this thread, I'm surprised that no one is alarmed that a registered sex offender has been attending Disney Pin Trading Nights for a number of years. I knew Larry Allred who is one of the defendants from meeting him at one of the Pin Trading Nights. He was always nice and polite and did a lot of trading, mostly lower end stuff but always seemed to have connections to find different pins. My wife even made him cookies and gave them to him at a Pin Trading Night.

I had no idea he had been convicted of Rape and that he was a registered Sex Offender. He was around so many women and children at these Pin Trading Nights! I hadn't seen him in about two years now so it just saddens me to learn all this about him but thankful that nothing ever happened to my wife or anyone else that was around him.
 
nWoJeffDW said:
After reading this thread, I'm surprised that no one is alarmed that a registered sex offender has been attending Disney Pin Trading Nights for a number of years. I knew Larry Allred who is one of the defendants from meeting him at one of the Pin Trading Nights. He was always nice and polite and did a lot of trading, mostly lower end stuff but always seemed to have connections to find different pins. My wife even made him cookies and gave them to him at a Pin Trading Night.

I had no idea he had been convicted of Rape and that he was a registered Sex Offender. He was around so many women and children at these Pin Trading Nights! I hadn't seen him in about two years now so it just saddens me to learn all this about him but thankful that nothing ever happened to my wife or anyone else that was around him.
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I was alarmed that more people seemed to care more about the pin crime than the guy who committed the rape and kidnapping who should have been in jail this whole time since he committed those crimes in the 70's!!!

Also, you do not know for sure whether or not he has not committed rape other times after the one he committed in the 70's... a lot of rapes don't even get reported.

Another thing is if I am reading the article correctly, the "assistant" is the one charged with rape and kidnapping, not the guy from Anaheim who is probly the one who has been at DLR PTNs.
 
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RaChEltheRabidRabbit said:
I was alarmed that more people seemed to care more about the pin crime than the guy who committed the rape and kidnapping who should have been in jail this whole time since he committed those crimes in the 70's!!!

Also, you do not know for sure wether or not he has not committed rape other times after the one he committed in the 70's... a lot of rapes don't even get reported.

Another thing is if I am reading the article correctly, the "assistant" is the one charged with rape and kidnapping, not the guy from Anaheim who is probly the one who has been at DLR PTNs.
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i believe they were both traders at the parks the names are too familiar.i agree but didnt post it in my first reply to this news.it makes me queasy to my stomach knowing i probably traded w/these guys numerous times.and my kids too,ugh.that guy should have been kept locked up.i hope he gets locked up for good.i hope disney starts cracking down on scrappers/counterfeits.it also makes me leary of pin pics who knows how many women traded w/this jerk via internet.i mean the guy had numerous womens addresses.its just plain creepy.
 
breadnbutterflies said:
i believe they were both traders at the parks the names are too familiar.i agree but didnt post it in my first reply to this news.it makes me queasy to my stomach knowing i probably traded w/these guys numerous times.and my kids too,ugh.that guy should have been kept locked up.i hope he gets locked up for good.i hope disney starts cracking down on scrappers/counterfeits.it also makes me leary of pin pics who knows how many women traded w/this jerk via internet.i mean the guy had numerous womens addresses.its just plain creepy.
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i meant to say could have had numerous womens adresses ,not that he did but i wouldnt doubt it.
 
I think everyone was alarmed, but this is a pin forum and maybe people just wanted to avoid discussion of that aspect?

The sad truth is that for every scrapper sellers out there there are far more sex offenders. I can't remember the site, neighborhoodwatchdog?, but they have maps of all the offenders in your area and it is alarming. They are everywhere, and it is scary. But, there are also cases where the label is not necessarily warranted. For example, I have heard of cases of false accusation or high school sweethearts that the parents wanted to break up. We all need to be careful at all times. I don't live in the area, know the person, or know the facts about the cases, so I just chose not to touch on that part of the story. So, I don't think it is that people aren't alarmed, it may just be that this isn't the right venue for that discussion.
 
Glad they are off the streets and the net hope they get what is coming to them
Yes 1 for the good guys
what was his id on ebay anyone know? had a run in with someone like that not long ago there
 
[Just read four pages and nodded so much my neck hurts!]

All of us here in this house cheered when we heard the news! Way to go U.S. Customs and Border Protection! It's always good to get the bad guy and get the bootleggers behind bars!

I do hope it begins the demise of people thinking it's okay to pass off garbage for sale on eBay as "tradeable" pins! Drives me crazy!

I agree - it's tremendously disturbing that the perps were around kids...[/shiver]

Obviously some people selling inexpensive pins aren't criminals when you can find the booster sets at the outlets for $6.99. Of course those are new in package. Or, like back in the day when I had to sell off a slew of mine fast to keep the house out of foreclosure. Just saying.
 
I agree that I am sure everyone was and is alarmed at the other charges just electing not to discuss them in a Pin forum.

As far as the "value" goes... they do not go by what was spent but by the "street" value. In this case it would be the actual cost of the authentic pins at a Disney Park. I worked in security and surveillance for over 25 years in Vegas on the Strip and had the opportunity to work along side Homeland Security, the FBI, Gaming and Law Enforcement here in Vegas for various cases over the years. Where the two men probably only paid a very small price per pin the value given to each pin will probably be in the neighborhood of $7 to $10 as that is the low end of what you pay for a open edition rack pin at the park these days. Lets say the men paid .10 a pin (I know that is more than likely low but it is an easy number to work with for this example). Now lets say they get shipments of 10,000 pins (again another easy number). They are spending $1000 for a shipment of pins given a street value of $70,000 to $100,000. Now any business person is going to buy before they run out of inventory so they would always have pins on hand as well. Since they were discovered by Customs (I think that is what I read) that means there was a shipment so on hand they would have a complete order plus whatever else they still had from the last time. I am quite confident that I am close in this example but we can all only speculate on the actual amount of pins retrieved and amount given them. I can see how one could get to a estimated $2 million operation rather quickly especially if the numbers were higher than the ones I have used.

Also, never believe everything you read. I remember when I was in College I watched a hair raising News airing in which they spoke of a 21 year old woman that was raped and had her arms cut off around the Modesto area somewhere. My best friend from high school called me a couple of days later to tell me it was her sister. I replied "It couldn't be because they said the woman was 21"... you see Mary was only 15 at the time of the rape. Another scenario is that I know someone that is in jail right now because after he (a 19 year old young man at the time) was caught having sexual relations with his 17 year old girl friend, she cried rape. She did it because she was religious and could not face her parents with the truth. The young man was also religious and an officer of the law so they came down particularly hard on him. I am not saying having sex with a minor is OK at any time or that he should have not had known better especially with his job and religious upbringing but it is what it is. I learned not to judge or believe everything you hear especially in the news.

Getting the counterfeit pins off the market is a great thing but I agree with those that said they are just a drop in the bucket. All it takes is looking through Ebay to notice all the different locations pins are coming from to know that these two men didn't have the inventory to provide them all and if they did the amount of the estimated worth of their business would have been much higher. I personally will follow the news carefully on this one.
 
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Rocke01 said:
I agree that I am sure everyone was and is alarmed at the other charges just electing not to discuss them in a Pin forum.
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I agree with this, and also I'm sure that many of them didn't take the time to actually read the article.

I also agree that we shouldn't judge. But it is somewhat frightening to think of what a convicted rapist and kidnapper might have done with his last few days of freedom before he is locked up, potentially for the rest of his life.
 
I just read in today's newspaper that the accused on Friday has pleaded "not guilty" in this case of importing $2 million worth of fake Disney pins from China ...... I can just imagine the defendant standing before the judge and responding to the fact that these intercepted boxes of pins were addressed to him -- "Well, your Honor, I don't know how all those pins were addressed to me ... the only thing I can think is that I was attempting to trade an LE5000 pin and perhaps the trader in China misunderstood and thought he was supposed to send me 5000 pins for my LE5000 !!" ....... Everyone clap if they believe he is "not guilty"!!
 
Hey every one.. Im glad the rape guy is gone also. Thats the real bad guy. BUT Remember. **** The other one is a X Cast member. *****

I was told this weekend that he would go into the DLR stores and look at new pins on cm lanyards. One CM told me " I know BOB.....Im so glad they got him.....I would hide my lanyard when i saw him coming."

It was nice to know that even if disney is not busting the fakes. CMs at the park are atleast tring to help. I was told later by another CM that they would hide from bob also.. His deal was to trade with CM for the new HM or CM exclucive than send it over seas.
 
Wow, a great story with an outrageous twist, though 100,000 pins at 2,000,000 dollars averages pin price at $20 each? Must be a huge lot of pins of different pricing as well as a large estimation difference.
 
Thanks for posting this! Can we also get it clear that three people were arrested? Not just two.

According to the LA Times, "Authorities also arrested Smyrak's girlfriend, Cynthia Lynn Pratt Vedder, 43. She is charged with one felony count of the manufacturing and sale of counterfeit products for independently participating in the same type of scheme, according to information provided by the Orange County D.A."
 
disUSCney said:
Thanks for posting this! Can we also get it clear that three people were arrested? Not just two.

According to the LA Times, "Authorities also arrested Smyrak's girlfriend, Cynthia Lynn Pratt Vedder, 43. She is charged with one felony count of the manufacturing and sale of counterfeit products for independently participating in the same type of scheme, according to information provided by the Orange County D.A."
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"Independently participating in the same type of scheme" is what I am wondering about. So, she was ordering more fake pins on top of her boyfriend's pins?
 
I'm glad we finally get to see the mugshots!

Merryweather said:
"Independently participating in the same type of scheme" is what I am wondering about. So, she was ordering more fake pins on top of her boyfriend's pins?
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Yeah the ex-girlfriend was doing her own fraud scheme. She has been charged separately while the two other guys are co-defendants.
 
I looked at the pictures and they looked slightly familiar, but I'm not sure. My DH looked at one and said, "Oh yeah, I've seen him in the park before...but it was a while ago." I hope I never traded with any of them.
 
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