7 ms·

I'm no criminal genius or anything but as a monday morning quarterback here i feel like he got too many people involved and screwed himself. Fencing the gold y

by jgh 9y ago

I'm no criminal genius or anything but as a monday morning quarterback here i feel like he got too many people involved and screwed himself. Fencing the gold you can't do much about I guess but if you're able to just do it and gtfo. Don't go around giving people money to go on a road trip to LA with you. Don't give your shady-ass girlfriend the money to hold onto. Take it with you and ditch the car on the border and walk across to Mexico. And what's he telling everyone in ecuador he stole $1.6m in gold for anyway? Sounds like the guy's lucky he got caught and never received the money.

IntronExon 9y ago
If he thought that way then he wouldn’t be a thief in the first place, or he’d be a thief in a suit. At the very least he’d commit crimes with a less risky profile and greater potential rewards.
prawn 9y ago
How likely would it be that you could get that quantity over the border going South? Is luggage checked? Assuming they could identify him from camera footage, he'd have limited options to keep an existing car or buy a car and stay in the US? It'd be a risk even buying a car in a friend's name. Best bet might be to forgo a car, rent somewhere remote and informally with cash, and sit tight for a while.
- jgh 9y ago
  I think it depends on the border crossing. At San Ysidro you can walk across and probably not get checked. I've walked across into mexico there a number of times (visa runs for TN) and never been checked, not even my passport. Granted I didn't have a bag with me. They tend to have a couple of guards who seem to check people occasionally, but I suspect if you were to walk across with a backpack behind a group of old ladies with luggage you'd probably be ok.
  - senorjazz 9y ago
    I drove over the border, perhaps Brownsville? I forget the name, but one of the last eastern border crossings. Drove over in a camper van with European plates, didn't even realise had left the US until got to the Mexican side and went and sorted papers for the vehicle. No search, no check, just passports
- umanwizard 9y ago
  > How likely would it be that you could get that quantity over the border going South? I've been to Mexico dozens of times and only once was anything checked at all.
- sjg007 9y ago
  The Mexicans would've stopped him. That's why he didn't take the money with him. In his case he would've need to do a reverse coyote which I am going to guess is basically impossible with $1.2m. A boat to Cuba maybe with a flight but otherwise impossible. His best chance outside of friends or family was bitcoin.
  - daveguy 9y ago
    Yikes. Bitcoin: the best for illegal transactions. That's not a positive attribute.
    - atwebb 9y ago
      Might be a good thing for bitcoin (heh) if that surprises you. That was pretty much it's public face for a long time thanks to the Silk Road and various mainstream pieces about money laundering.
      - daveguy 9y ago
        Actually it doesn't surprise me that much. Parents asked when bitcoin was around 10k on the way up if they should invest. I told them there will probably be value for a while because it is a money laundering Mecca, but definitely risky. For a while (up to 19k+) I thought I might have burned significant tech trust.
        celticninja 9y ago
        money laundering via bitcoin, is overhyped and not as much of an issue as people make out. cash is always going to be king.
    - modeless 9y ago
      It's not though; it's really a misconception. It's much more traceable than cash. Monero would be what a criminal would use.
  - maxander 9y ago
- rokhayakebe 9y ago
  I am sure he could have just mailed it UPS, FEDEX or something.
  - sjg007 9y ago
    That’s an interesting idea.
- manuelisimo 9y ago
  If you arrive to México in a plane you can expect random searches. I get my luggage opened around 1 in 10 times. They also use x-ray for screening luggage on arrival. If you are driving or walking sometimes you just say hello and that's about it. But I also have gotten my car searched, specially if crossing by myself. It is a bit more relaxed on Christmas time, when a lot of people cross the border.
- rsync 9y ago
  "How likely would it be that you could get that quantity over the border going South? Is luggage checked?" I can only speak from personal experience, but ... As someone who has driven into, and through, Mexico many, many times (one trip was Colorado to El Salvador and back) I can tell you that it's all smiles and waves and thumbs up as long as you are driving south. As long as you're driving south, nobody cares what you're doing or what's up or where you're going or who you are. The moment you turn around and point north everyone cares.
  - prawn 9y ago
    I assumed as much. I suppose he would've wanted to have done it quickly before his photo was out there. Maybe stash half and risk carrying the other half. Or, as I said, get to a more remote area, make friends, rent a room cheap, befriend the landlord and try to borrow their car for cash, and then slowly develop a lifestyle where you can make careful use of the money without divulging your identity too much.
ogdoad 9y ago
I think the point is that your life doesn't reach the point where you steal $1m worth of gold without a few ripples of insanity appearing here or there. It appears it takes a confluence of chaos for such a heist to manifest.
- icantdrive55 9y ago
  I get the insanity, but you don't need to no tell anyone anything--maybe mom, or dad if they have a rebellious streak in them, and most don't. The last person you tell is your girlfriend. I know it's difficult, but it always backfires. There's a book out there called "How do you Keep a Secret between three people? Kill the other two." The book is about law breaking Bikers, but the title goes to the extreme to tell the truth. There's just a huge biological need to tell people our fears. It makes sense. We're just monkeys screaming for help." There's a part of me that wants some bad guys to get away clean. I guess it's a FU to the system? A system that forgets some of us? I once had a girlfriend, and we were watching Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. She enjoyed the movie. And the end, she was glad they were shot. I looked over at her, and was astonished. To this day, I think about that night. She was a very conservative girl, but cheated in college. She's now a very powerful head of tech something.
sjg007 9y ago
Should've bought bitcoin.
rokhayakebe 9y ago
And what's he telling everyone 1) Ego 2) I have no scientific evidence for this but it feels humans want to confess and unless death find them first everyone will confess every crime they have done. It could be through a joke, or to a complete stranger or some other way.
- pavel_lishin 9y ago
  What's the name for this logical fallacy? You think people want to confess because you know people who have. You don't know of many who got away with a crime and didn't confess.
  - jamornh 9y ago
    Sounds like survivorship or selection bias to me.
  - logiclion 9y ago
    Whats the name for assigning a logical fallacy to a post that starts with “no scientific evidence” and “it feels”?
    - Banthum 9y ago
      Agreement.
    - roel_v 9y ago
      'Less wrong syndrome'
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - percival_krusen 9y ago
    Hmm, availability heuristic? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Availability_heuristic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Availability_heuristic
razorunreal 9y ago
You don't have to tell anyone if your face is on the news.
csomar 9y ago
Here is the simple explanation: He is dump/stupid. You wonder why the guy would not handle himself better? Well, if he was smart, then he would never think of it. He has access to the US and countless opportunities. He'd have been probably better off financially. And he has access to NYC, he doesn't need a girlfriend.

by jgh 9y ago

IntronExon 9y ago

If he thought that way then he wouldn’t be a thief in the first place, or he’d be a thief in a suit. At the very least he’d commit crimes with a less risky profile and greater potential rewards.

prawn 9y ago

How likely would it be that you could get that quantity over the border going South? Is luggage checked? Assuming they could identify him from camera footage, he'd have limited options to keep an existing car or buy a car and stay in the US? It'd be a risk even buying a car in a friend's name. Best bet might be to forgo a car, rent somewhere remote and informally with cash, and sit tight for a while.

jgh 9y ago
I think it depends on the border crossing. At San Ysidro you can walk across and probably not get checked. I've walked across into mexico there a number of times (visa runs for TN) and never been checked, not even my passport. Granted I didn't have a bag with me. They tend to have a couple of guards who seem to check people occasionally, but I suspect if you were to walk across with a backpack behind a group of old ladies with luggage you'd probably be ok.
- senorjazz 9y ago
  I drove over the border, perhaps Brownsville? I forget the name, but one of the last eastern border crossings. Drove over in a camper van with European plates, didn't even realise had left the US until got to the Mexican side and went and sorted papers for the vehicle. No search, no check, just passports
umanwizard 9y ago
> How likely would it be that you could get that quantity over the border going South? I've been to Mexico dozens of times and only once was anything checked at all.
sjg007 9y ago
The Mexicans would've stopped him. That's why he didn't take the money with him. In his case he would've need to do a reverse coyote which I am going to guess is basically impossible with $1.2m. A boat to Cuba maybe with a flight but otherwise impossible. His best chance outside of friends or family was bitcoin.
- daveguy 9y ago
  Yikes. Bitcoin: the best for illegal transactions. That's not a positive attribute.
  - atwebb 9y ago
    Might be a good thing for bitcoin (heh) if that surprises you. That was pretty much it's public face for a long time thanks to the Silk Road and various mainstream pieces about money laundering.
    - daveguy 9y ago
      Actually it doesn't surprise me that much. Parents asked when bitcoin was around 10k on the way up if they should invest. I told them there will probably be value for a while because it is a money laundering Mecca, but definitely risky. For a while (up to 19k+) I thought I might have burned significant tech trust.
      - celticninja 9y ago
        money laundering via bitcoin, is overhyped and not as much of an issue as people make out. cash is always going to be king.
  - modeless 9y ago
    It's not though; it's really a misconception. It's much more traceable than cash. Monero would be what a criminal would use.
- maxander 9y ago
rokhayakebe 9y ago
I am sure he could have just mailed it UPS, FEDEX or something.
- sjg007 9y ago
  That’s an interesting idea.
manuelisimo 9y ago
If you arrive to México in a plane you can expect random searches. I get my luggage opened around 1 in 10 times. They also use x-ray for screening luggage on arrival. If you are driving or walking sometimes you just say hello and that's about it. But I also have gotten my car searched, specially if crossing by myself. It is a bit more relaxed on Christmas time, when a lot of people cross the border.
rsync 9y ago
"How likely would it be that you could get that quantity over the border going South? Is luggage checked?" I can only speak from personal experience, but ... As someone who has driven into, and through, Mexico many, many times (one trip was Colorado to El Salvador and back) I can tell you that it's all smiles and waves and thumbs up as long as you are driving south. As long as you're driving south, nobody cares what you're doing or what's up or where you're going or who you are. The moment you turn around and point north everyone cares.
- prawn 9y ago
  I assumed as much. I suppose he would've wanted to have done it quickly before his photo was out there. Maybe stash half and risk carrying the other half. Or, as I said, get to a more remote area, make friends, rent a room cheap, befriend the landlord and try to borrow their car for cash, and then slowly develop a lifestyle where you can make careful use of the money without divulging your identity too much.

ogdoad 9y ago

I think the point is that your life doesn't reach the point where you steal $1m worth of gold without a few ripples of insanity appearing here or there. It appears it takes a confluence of chaos for such a heist to manifest.

icantdrive55 9y ago
I get the insanity, but you don't need to no tell anyone anything--maybe mom, or dad if they have a rebellious streak in them, and most don't. The last person you tell is your girlfriend. I know it's difficult, but it always backfires. There's a book out there called "How do you Keep a Secret between three people? Kill the other two." The book is about law breaking Bikers, but the title goes to the extreme to tell the truth. There's just a huge biological need to tell people our fears. It makes sense. We're just monkeys screaming for help." There's a part of me that wants some bad guys to get away clean. I guess it's a FU to the system? A system that forgets some of us? I once had a girlfriend, and we were watching Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. She enjoyed the movie. And the end, she was glad they were shot. I looked over at her, and was astonished. To this day, I think about that night. She was a very conservative girl, but cheated in college. She's now a very powerful head of tech something.

sjg007 9y ago

Should've bought bitcoin.

rokhayakebe 9y ago

And what's he telling everyone 1) Ego 2) I have no scientific evidence for this but it feels humans want to confess and unless death find them first everyone will confess every crime they have done. It could be through a joke, or to a complete stranger or some other way.

pavel_lishin 9y ago
What's the name for this logical fallacy? You think people want to confess because you know people who have. You don't know of many who got away with a crime and didn't confess.
- jamornh 9y ago
  Sounds like survivorship or selection bias to me.
- logiclion 9y ago
  Whats the name for assigning a logical fallacy to a post that starts with “no scientific evidence” and “it feels”?
  - Banthum 9y ago
    Agreement.
  - roel_v 9y ago
    'Less wrong syndrome'
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- percival_krusen 9y ago
  Hmm, availability heuristic? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Availability_heuristic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Availability_heuristic

razorunreal 9y ago

You don't have to tell anyone if your face is on the news.

csomar 9y ago

Here is the simple explanation: He is dump/stupid. You wonder why the guy would not handle himself better? Well, if he was smart, then he would never think of it. He has access to the US and countless opportunities. He'd have been probably better off financially. And he has access to NYC, he doesn't need a girlfriend.