Friday, July 30, 2010

Ripon Woman Becomes International Arms Dealer

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Earlier this month, the Ripon Police Department received a tip from a firearms dealer in Iowa who said someone used a stolen credit card number to order a $1,600 rifle scope and have it shipped to an address in Ripon, Wallner said.

Police launched an investigation into possible credit card fraud and instead uncovered an intricate system to obtain military equipment banned by the U.S. State Department for overseas shipping.

Police identified several packages being sent to the same address and obtained a search warrant, Wallner said.

Inside they found about 20 packages, containing high-end rifle/sniper scopes, night vision equipment, police and military uniforms, GPS units, and electronics, all addressed to different names, that the woman was planning to readdress and ship to Novorossijsk, Russia - a city located on the north coast of the Black Sea and north of Iraq.

The woman, who police say has been cooperative with the investigation, told police the online temporary agency that hired her previously had sent five boxes with baby clothes and diapers that she opened, repackaged and shipped to what she thought was an orphanage in Russia.

The agency told her she would be paid $30 per package through her PayPal account and that the next packages didn’t need to be opened and repackaged, just readdressed and shipped.

Luckily, Wallner said, the woman had sent only the baby clothes and diapers by the time police intervened.

Police confiscated more than $15,000 worth of property purchased with credit card information stolen from at least 20 different victims across the U.S.

It’s hard to find fault with the woman other than by the old yarn, “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

(3) Comments
Posted by Owen at 0745 hrs
Law + Military + Technology

  1. north of Iraq

    Interesting terminology there.  What’s the significance of pointing that out?  It’s more directly north of Turkey or Syria…

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 30, 2010 at 1124 hrs


  2. To be frank, this was not a case of “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

    No doubt she would have continued to get her payment.  So it would have been as good as it sounded, only illegal.

    Posted by Brian J. on July 31, 2010 at 0646 hrs


  3. The Ripon Commonwealth said it was more than 30 packages were found.  It also inferred that she may have sent out packages with military equipment.  The paper also said that she likely would have lost money on this as the cost of shipping was more than what she was receiving. Obviously, she thought she was helping orphans.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on August 01, 2010 at 2009 hrs


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