Not everyone can make it to the members meetings once a month, and there was one piece of news that was announced that I think needs to be trumpeted from the rooftops (not literally, mind you, especially because I can’t play the trumpet).
We have (obviously at least one) a thief at DMS and it was announced last night that a person has been caught and charged with what turns out to be a Felony. It was discovered that this person had been stealing cash from boxes, as well as expensive equipment to resell on ebay.
Throw the book at’em I say. Let it be a warning to all, DMS will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.
Yes, it was a pleasant surprise to find out that apparently when you steal from a non-profit it is automatically considered a felony. Perhaps that will serve as a deterent to any future thieves.
Cudo’s to all involved in identifying the individual!
Thanks to the hard work of many people the thief was finally shut down. What everyone thought was a specific problem in electronics turned out to be much more widespread. Oh my, the range of things they took.
This, in my opinion, highlighted the inherent problem with an organization like ours. We expose ourselves in trusting total strangers that handed over $50 to be a member – there isn’t a great solution to this, its just how this works. Our eyes and ears are the first line of defense to thievery. Vigilance is necessary to keep these occurrences infrequent, and I hate to say that this will likely happen again. People are assholes.
First of all, it’s good news that the thief was identified and charged. But the really good news (IMHO) is that perhaps the “cheating the payment system” isn’t as widespread as we thought. Perhaps some of that can be attributed to targeted theft. I’d rather think that we had one thief than a whole bunch of cheaters.
I assume this person has been banned from the premises. Seems appropriate that his photo and name be posted now so we can call the authorities if he returns.
You could post signs making it very clear that theft from a non profit is a felony that will be prosecuted, attach the mugshot of the caught offenders, and offer rewards for people who identify thieves. Making camera footage open to the general membership may help with this, although I can see why that would be controversial…
There wasn’t a ton of discussion at the meeting, but some equipment was recovered. Much of it is gone forever. There was mention that if we could track down the stuff via ebay that we could technically reclaim it, as it’s stolen property, but that seems like a lot of work and bad PR for the makerspace.
Having dealt with a con artist / thief in the past, they’re not likely to have any assets that we can go after. They tend to live in the moment, spending what cash they have on frivolity (I’m generalizing here for sure).
As for lists of stuff that was stolen, I understand that there are a number of large ticket items that have been identified from a number of committees, and that Electronics and Machine Shop were a prime targets. It would be a good idea to put together a master list so that we can at least attempt to recover whatever he may have that has not been sold off already. I’m also understanding that he had figured out a way to remove cash from a number of the cash boxes around the space.
