Three Of My Watches Stolen From Repair Shop!!

[John Hinkey]

Unfortunate news - I had 3 of my 6 family heirloom watches at a local shop for repair - the 3 best/nicest ones - and they were stolen from the shop along with about 30 other watches that the shop had locked up.
Here's pictures of the three watches:
E. Koehn


Hamilton 912


Agassiz


Any tips on what I can do to try to recover these watches? I have detailed pics of them all so that identifying marks and serial numbers are obvious.
I live in Seattle.

Thanks -

John

 

[aucaj]

I am very sorry this happened to you. I would call every pawn shop within 50 miles. Leave them your information. You can’t count on the cops to necessarily to recover your items. If the cases are precious metal, you will want to call gold scrap shops too.

 

[roughbarked]

These are worrying times. All the details including photos of the inside of the backs should be provided to authorities so that maybe the watch cases can be caught before they are scrapped.

 

[musicguy]

I had 3 of my 6 family heirloom watches at a local shop for repair

Yikes! I know some people are afraid of putting their watches
in the mail, but I never really thought about my watchmaker
getting robbed. There is no great answer, I would put a search on eBay
for the Private label and the other watches too.



Rob

 

[John Hinkey]

Yikes! I know some people are afraid of putting their watches
in the mail, but I never really thought about my watchmaker
getting robbed. There is no great answer, I would put a search on eBay
for the Private label and the other watches too.



Rob

Yes, I purposely did not send the watches across the country for service and chose a local company instead for just that reason.
Doing all I can with the local pawn shops and coin/precious metals dealers to make them aware of this theft.

Had to break the news to my poor elderly mom that these had been stolen . . .

Ugh.

- John

 

[aucaj]

I would also watch Craigslist. According to some references, ebay and Craigslist are more regularly used by criminals than pawn shops.

 

[Ethan Lipsig]

The shop ought to have insurance to cover your economic loss, or it might be liable to you for that loss. I doubt you could recover the "heirloom" value, and money wouldn't be an adequate remedy.

 

[John Hinkey]

Thanks for all the support and suggestions.
My Mom was in tears . . .

Meanwhile, I've contacted the Seattle Police directly and outside of the watch repair owner's efforts I've sent images and descriptions directly to the detectives.
Also, I contacted the pawn shops and gold dealers in the area where the theft occurred and send images of the watches to them. So far they have been very nice and helpful to deal with. I have a few more pawn shops to go to contact today.
Also, ebay, craigslist, and offerup will be monitored on a regular basis.

Also, also, what do you think about putting the two expensive watches into the watch register: THE WATCH REGISTER
Does anyone know anything about these guys?

- John

 

[musicguy]

Also, also, what do you think about putting the two expensive watches into the watch register: THE WATCH REGISTER
Does anyone know anything about these guys?

I have never used them, or heard of them.

Rob

 

[Dr. Jon]

Sadly the likelihood of recovery is low.

For the future security is a major part of evaluating a watch repair or even a agent to sell your valuables. A safe is an essential and in addition to being heavy well secured it also has to be rated highly against fire.

My favorite watchmaker has alarms, a safe, the shop is in his home and he as well as his wife have many forearms and are well versed in their use. He is very good friends with the local police chief and and would be robber has to crazy to try.

He was robbed when he took in a relative but it was only his personal items and he was not able to recover them from local pawn shops, who had mysteriously forgotten to enter the items on their lists.

As to this case, look over items for sale and file a police report notify on-line auction sites, but then move on. If you get them back you are fortunate but do NOT let this cast a pall over your life. The thieves have your property, do not let them have your joy in life.

 

[John Hinkey]

Sadly the likelihood of recovery is low.

For the future security is a major part of evaluating a watch repair or even a agent to sell your valuables. A safe is an essential and in addition to being heavy well secured it also has to be rated highly against fire.

My favorite watchmaker has alarms, a safe, the shop is in his home and he as well as his wife have many forearms and are well versed in their use. He is very good friends with the local police chief and and would be robber has to crazy to try.

He was robbed when he took in a relative but it was only his personal items and he was not able to recover them from local pawn shops, who had mysteriously forgotten to enter the items on their lists.

As to this case, look over items for sale and file a police report notify on-line auction sites, but then move on. If you get them back you are fortunate but do NOT let this cast a pall over your life. The thieves have your property, do not let them have your joy in life.

Yes, you are right, I can't let it consume me (despite being obviously pissed off), but I told the watch repair place we'd give it a week to see if they turn up anywhere, then he'll have to compensate me. He offered to purchase similar watches as replacements, but since they are heirlooms it really doesn't matter to me at this point, though I may change my mind over the next week.

- J

 

[musicguy]

Can you post movement photos


Rob

 

[John Hinkey]

Can you post movement photos


Rob

 

[John Hinkey]

A week later and I've contacted several pawn shops and gold buying shops and fully reported everything to the Seattle Police.
I even contacted a few of the local Craigslist people that are advertising to buy any old pocket watches in case someone responds to their ad with my watches.
We are now in the wait and see game while I monitor Craigslist, FB Marketplace, Ebay, OfferUp, etc. on a daily basis.

 

[Bryan Eyring]

Contact the president of your state's pawnbroker's association and have them send out an e-blast with these photos, along with your contact information.

Pawnbrokers are typically very eager to assist with ensuring that stolen merchandise is not purchased.

 

[Bryan Eyring]

Frequently check ebay listings within a 100 mile radius of you too.

This is how I recovered some of my own items and determined the identity of my intruder.

 

[John Hinkey]

Frequently check ebay listings within a 100 mile radius of you too.

This is how I recovered some of my own items and determined the identity of my intruder.

Yes, checking Craigslist, ebay, facebook MP, and OfferUp within a few hundred miles.
The hope is that since a couple dozen watches along with mine were taken one of these must show up eventually on one of these market places and that could hopefully lead back to the perpetrator.

 

[Bryan Eyring]

They will.

 

[neighmond]

Make it known to the pawnbrokers that you are willing to pay them well for their trouble, moreso if the perp goes up for it. Lots of pawnbrokers would gladly drop a dime on a thief since thieves make them look bad, especially if they get something out of it.

 

[John Hinkey]

Make it known to the pawnbrokers that you are willing to pay them well for their trouble, moreso if the perp goes up for it. Lots of pawnbrokers would gladly drop a dime on a thief since thieves make them look bad, especially if they get something out of it.

The problem I have is that I live in a big metropolitan area and there are many many pawn shops and gold buying shops to try to contact via phone and email. I am going to put out somewhat of a mass mailing to as many of the larger shops as I can. So far I've only contacted pawn shops near where the burglary took place, but the thieves could try to pawn this stuff 50 miles away in another city . . .

 

[neighmond]

The problem I have is that I live in a big metropolitan area and there are many many pawn shops and gold buying shops to try to contact via phone and email. I am going to put out somewhat of a mass mailing to as many of the larger shops as I can. So far I've only contacted pawn shops near where the burglary took place, but the thieves could try to pawn this stuff 50 miles away in another city . . .

Make sure you tell them if they find your goods at another pawnshop both of them can share in the reward, most pawnbrokers I know have at least some sort of relationship with others in their trade.

another thing you do is put adds in the paper and social media that you are buying old watches; open a gmail account just for that and say something like "send pictures of what you got, I like 'em all!" and maybe something will show up.

 

[John Hinkey]

Make sure you tell them if they find your goods at another pawnshop both of them can share in the reward, most pawnbrokers I know have at least some sort of relationship with others in their trade.

another thing you do is put adds in the paper and social media that you are buying old watches; open a gmail account just for that and say something like "send pictures of what you got, I like 'em all!" and maybe something will show up.

Thanks. Already put an ad in CL advertising to buy old pocket watches. Had one person respond, but they did not follow-up to my reply to them.
- John