Thieves busted selling $22,000 of stuff stolen from work on Craigslist

If you’re going to rip off your company, you probably don’t want to try and sell the stuff on Craigslist. That’s the lesson two people learned after cops busted them for trying to pawn $22,000 worth of stolen goods on the online classified site.

King County Sheriff’s Deputy Charlie Akers says the owner of a company in the unincorporated area of south Seattle discovered Feb. 13 the theft of about $10,000 worth of Bluetooth keyboards from a warehouse. He told detectives there were no signs of forced entry and believed it was an inside job.

After doing a full inventory several days later, the owner discovered $12,000 worth of tripods were also taken. Soon after, he discovered an ad for the stuff on Craigslist. Another employee recognized where the photos in the ad had been taken, and a detective set up an undercover sting.

It didn’t take long to catch the suspected thieves. The stolen items were recovered at a house just blocks from the company, along with 17 guns, ammo, outlaw motorcycle gang clothing and memorabilia and robbery kits that included a mask, gloves and large zip-ties made into handcuffs.

Akers says the home belonged to a current and recently fired employee of the company. One was arrested and the other questioned. Charges are expected against both, and the investigation continues.

“There’s a TV show America’s Dumbest Criminals,” Akers says. “There are people who think they’re smarter than the system, they think they’re smarter than everyone else. So they think they can get away with stuff like this.”