Have you seen this STOLEN #144 Goudey Ruth - Mail Fraud in Austin Texas.
 

Hey everyone. I have a mail fraud scam that I am sad to have to report. It's also somewhat entertaining (world's dumbest criminals type stuff). This was the result of an eBay transaction where I purchased a Ruth card, that I've been coveting for a while. Both the seller and I are victims of the fraud. Pictures of the card are attached, I'm sure it's long smashed out of the PSA slab that it was in, but who knows, these guys aren't quite brain surgeons, as you'll gather from the story below.

Card purchased on 6/26. Seller ships with delivery confirmation and fully insured. Itching for my card on 7/2 I track it and see it's marked as delivered and signed for. I have no card. I call the post office, they provide me with a receipt complete with address and signature for a home about a mile away from me, address has no resemblance to mine. I go knock on the door, receipt in hand. Owner answers, claims he doesn't know what I'm talking about and nobody with the last name on the receipt lives at that address. I go home and check the deed for the house on the local county web site and sure enough, the name on the receipt matches the name of the owner. Seller and I decide to report to the investigative branch of the USPS. A few days go by with nothing. I get a visit from my mail carrier today. She was off the entire week that the card was delivered. The fill in postal worker delivered numerous insured packages to the same address, same one my card went to, that were intended for other folks. The genius signs for all of them with his real name! The fill in mail carrier has been fired and they're gong to arrest him from what I'm told. The investigators report that the guy that I confronted actually admitted to the scam, but can't re-produce any of the packages, I guess he sold them already or whatever. So, now we're told that we have to wait until 7/17 to file the insurance claim (21 days after shipment). While I will get my cash back, I am bummed over the loss of the Ruth card.

North East Austin Texas is where this all went down. The home of the accused is actually in a very upscale neighborhood and is easily a half million dollar home.

Keep your eyes peeled for the Babe. Thanks all!

Lame, obviously not a smart man. I feel for you, I have a HOF red Hindu that's been lost for 10 weeks. Eyes peeled!

Complete idiots. Let's scam a branch of the US government. Let's steal only the stuff that they're tracking and will have to pay out insurance claims on. And, let's put our real names and addresses on the slips that we sign...not the addresses of where they were supposed to go.

Usps
 

That is one of the problems with the Post Office. They have gotten rid of over 200,000 career employees and replaced many of them with temporary help. The temps get a decent hourly wage, but there aren't any benefits, and no seniority, retirement etc. Most of the temps are OK but a lot of them aren't. The USPS is planning on dropping over 200,000 more jobs in the next 3-4 years so it will only get worse. In the next two years 13000 Postmasters will lose their jobs and they will be replaced by temporary help that works 2 to 6 hours a day. Their supervisors will be located in offices 10-20 miles away, so look for things to be interesting if you live in a small town.

Rick

If everything I've read about postal inspectors is even half true the whole crew is in for a load of trouble.

No statute of limitations, so if they convict and find the card being sold by one of them later they can apply other charges. Plus they refer stuff outside jurisdiction to the appropriate authority. And unlike a complaint from a regular person that might not get as much effort in investigation info from the POD gets taken care of.

He might not be out for some time:)

Steve B

Wow! That sucks
Outside of your Goudey Ruth, I wonder what else was stolen from this pair?, maybe cookies from Grandma to her grandson.
Maybe baby clothes & formula. Maybe a book on dieting or costume jewelry.
I hope they enjoyed the items cause it looks like jail (hopefully) is awaiting them.

From what I understand, it was all insured packages. So, who knows, they probably got all sorts of stuff.

Oddly my card showed up today, the post office gods must read Net54.

That's awesome being as we just talked about it last night. Glad to hear. I'm pretty sure the Babe is never showing up for me.

Good luck Jeff, hope all goes good for ya and you get that Ruth treasure

Glad to here you got your card Chris would love to see a scan if you
are willing to show it.

It's as low grade as you can get :)

http://i.imgur.com/B5qco.jpg

That Duffy card looks like at least a grade 2 to me.

25 years ago when the hobby was fun and PSA didn't exhist, that card would have been considered VG.

Sorry to hear about this. Thieves are the lowest scumbags in my opinion.

VG when selling, POOR when buying.

that duffy presents very well for a 1.

Very nice chris and really nice for the grade congrats on a great pick up!!!!

Happy you got your card back.

Thats a nice card for its grade. I think it deserves at least a PSA 1.5...especially seeing how my 1959 Topps Frank Robinson card got a 1.5 and it looks to be in worst shape than your card.

Awesome card!
JimB

Thanks guys.

Hopefully the Ruth shows up.

Who cares about the grade. That is one sweet looking card. Afterall, who stares at the grade late at night. The older I get, the less concerned I am about what a TPG thinks it should be. congrads!