A Kiwi woman has shared her tips for getting stolen property for sale on Trade Me back after a successful sting operation to get her prized roulette wheel back from thieves.
Debbie Williams owns a casino hiring business called Las Vegas Functions and last year their invaluable roulette wheel, which came from that Riviera Casino in the 1950s, was stolen from their trailer in Christchurch.
"I was devastated. I thought that's it, I'm never going to see that wheel again," Williams told the AM show.
But to her surprise, she did see the wheel again. Two days later, Williams was looking on Trade Me for poker chips when she came across her roulette wheel.
Williams said the police told her she was better off buying the gear back herself than risking not getting it back at all.
But Williams wasn't going to give in to the thieves, so she hired a private investigator to help her get the casino equipment back.
"We didn't want to make a mistake," Williams said. "One wrong turn and they'll take it down and we will never see the gear again."
Williams' staff then started bidding on the wheel, which she advises other people in similar situations to do because it keeps the TradeMe auction live and makes it harder for the thieves to take it down.
Williams and her staff won the auction and told the thieves they would pay with cash when they picked up the items. The private investigator then met the thieves in the car park.
The police ended up getting involved and got the details of the seller from Trade Me. The seller was known to police and actually quite dangerous, Williams said.
The police came along with the private investigator for the sting operation and arrested the thieves.
Williams says for people that find themselves in similar situations it is best to initially bid on the auction, get advice from the police and if you can afford to, hire a private investigator.
Trade Me told the AM show it has sophisticated systems and processes in place to help keep stolen items safe, "you'd be a mug to do anything dodgy on Trade Me".
