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Not sure who's on their list as well but, I thought it was pretty amazing as
to the fan response in regards to sending letters to the local authorities,
and newspapers. It seemed as if there was a flood of support within, what?
24 hours asking to stop. Just curious to see if anyone here sent any emails.
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--- In , "Eric Hutchinson"
<surfinseattle@h...> wrote:
>
> Not sure who's on their list as well but, I thought it was pretty
amazing as
> to the fan response in regards to sending letters to the local
authorities,
> and newspapers. It seemed as if there was a flood of support
within, what?
> 24 hours asking to stop. Just curious to see if anyone here sent any
emails.
Hi Eric!
What is their "situation"? Is this about their gear getting stolen
(that was a while ago) or is this something new?
Thanks,
BN
--- In , "Brian Neal" <bgneal@g...> wrote:
> What is their "situation"? Is this about their gear getting stolen
> (that was a while ago) or is this something new?
Here's the gist of it from Jim Thomas' post:
"The Big news and not all good is that after no news about any of
our gear for 5 months , a substantial portion of our stolen equipment
has begun surfacing in Kalikspell, Montana. We are sharing this
information with you all because if you think that getting your gear
stolen is a hassle, trying to get it back can be more of a headache
and further we may need some from help from some of you out there with
ideas as we don't want to spend huge money on legal fees trying to get
our gear back."
Basically, they're getting jerked around by the Kalikspell pawn shop
where their gear that was stolen in Las Vegas has been sold and the
local law enforcement folks. The Mermen community is mobilized, which
is what Eric referred to. In a word, it sucks (ok two words). Music
will win.
Rick
--- In , "Rick Selby" <selby@e...> wrote:
>
> --- In , "Brian Neal" <bgneal@g...>
wrote:
>
> > What is their "situation"? Is this about their gear getting stolen
> > (that was a while ago) or is this something new?
>
> Here's the gist of it from Jim Thomas' post:
> "The Big news and not all good is that after no news about any of
> our gear for 5 months , a substantial portion of our stolen
equipment
> has begun surfacing in Kalikspell, Montana. We are sharing this
> information with you all because if you think that getting your gear
> stolen is a hassle, trying to get it back can be more of a headache
> and further we may need some from help from some of you out there
with
> ideas as we don't want to spend huge money on legal fees trying to
get
> our gear back."
>
> Basically, they're getting jerked around by the Kalikspell pawn shop
> where their gear that was stolen in Las Vegas has been sold and the
> local law enforcement folks. The Mermen community is mobilized,
which
> is what Eric referred to. In a word, it sucks (ok two words). Music
> will win.
>
> Rick
found this article of UTMOST interest and relevance to this situation
will post here, and email to Jim Thomas well
Godspeed to the Mermen
Unsteady Freddie
Strict rules coming for pawn, antique shops
By Roberta Forsell Stauffer of The Montana Standard - 10/09/2005
New regulations are coming for Butte-Silver Bow businesses dealing in
second-hand goods.
The main intent of the ordinance is to help police track thieves and
stolen property. It will apply to pawn shops, second-hand and antique
stores, plus dealers of coins and some metals and stones.
Initial reactions from pawn shop owners are positive. Since they
already keep detailed records of items pawned or purchased, passing
those records along to police once a week in digital form shouldn't
be a problem.
They're even willing to take fingerprints of customers they don't
know, as called for in the draft.
"I don't see anything that we couldn't live with," said Bruce
Hemphill, co-owner of Bruce and Bob's Good Guy Pawn, 202 S. Arizona
St. "All in all, I don't see where this would be much of a problem,"
added his partner, Bob Moreno.
They do have a few questions, especially about proposed exemptions,
and plan to present them this week to county officials (see sidebar).
A few antique store owners doubt the new law will apply to them since
it exempts businesses that make fewer than five purchases a month.
Guy Palmer of D&G Antiques, 16 N. Montana, couldn't remember the last
time he bought an item from someone who walked in off the street.
"We go to houses and buy," Palmer said.
A similar reaction came from Jackie Taylor Rolison, owner of the
Historic Towey Hotel and Antique Mall, 11 S. Montana St.
She mainly buys from estate sales, and those purchases would also be
exempt, as would garage sales and stores operated by nonprofits or
fraternal or religious organizations.
Both Palmer and Rolison keep written records of occasional purchases
they have made from walk-ins, but they're not on computer and
probably never will be. Palmer's are in a little receipt book and
Rolison's, on scraps of paper stuffed into an envelope near the cash
register.
She boasts of having no computer, no fax, no cell phone.
"I am an antique dealer because I like the old ways," Rolison said.
Business owners can submit paper copies to police if they log fewer
than 10 purchases a week and pay a 50-cent-per-transaction fee to
help cover the cost of data entry.
Butte-Silver Bow Sheriff John Walsh said the fee will at least help
to raise awareness "that there's a cost to everything that has to be
done." He sees no alternative to this data base for keeping track of
second-hand goods and the people who sell them. He also believes
these business types should be regulated under the same law.
"This basically makes the businesses comply with getting the
information to us in a form that we can use without having to add a
lot of manpower," Walsh said.
Numerous logistical questions remain, and the sheriff's office plans
to work with business owners to resolve them.
"Without them working with us, it's just going to be loggerheads and
we don't want that," Walsh said. "We want to come up with a system
that everyone can live with." Rolison does not believe one law should
govern all business types and does not think these new regulations
should apply to her.
She also resents the insinuation that antique stores are selling
goods stolen by methamphetamine addicts. She said last spring's
publicity on this issue hurt her business and others by scaring away
potential customers who wanted nothing to do with potentially stolen
merchandise.
"If it looks suspicious, I don't purchase," she said, adding that she
only buys from people she knows.
"People who are stealing in this town aren't selling here," Rolison
said. "They go out of town." Pawn shop owners expressed similar
frustrations over the publicity and stressed that they are legitimate
businesses that have nothing to gain by accepting stolen goods.
Shawn Hanson, part owner of the Mountain Man Trading Post, said that
they end up losing if stolen goods are found in their shops because
police take them away and they hardly ever see any restitution.
"It does us no justice to do business with criminals at all," Hanson
said.
Hemphill fully agreed.
"I'm not going to put up with them bringing someone else's stuff to
me," he said.
>
Yes, this was about an email from their fanlist the other day about the
stolen gear,from what i understand someone noticed the mermen sticker on a
piece of their equipment and looked them up on the internet only to find out
about the missing equip. and notified them that a pawn shop in Montana was
selling items with the same logos, etc... The mermen notified the
authorities and sent a fanlist email about their situation. In the email
they made it seem that neither the pawn shop nor the local authorities were
going to do much in the way of helping them. They sent a fanlist email the
next day telling people to stop, stop, stop, contacting the authorities,
newpapers, etc...
I'm assuming that there was a big response from everyone, ideleted the
original email so i don't remember the exact words.
Surf in Seattle?
>From: "Brian Neal" <>
>Reply-To:
>To:
>Subject: [SurfGuitar101] Re: The Mermen's situation
>Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2005 23:28:34 -0000
>
>--- In , "Eric Hutchinson"
><surfinseattle@h...> wrote:
> >
> > Not sure who's on their list as well but, I thought it was pretty
>amazing as
> > to the fan response in regards to sending letters to the local
>authorities,
> > and newspapers. It seemed as if there was a flood of support
>within, what?
> > 24 hours asking to stop. Just curious to see if anyone here sent any
>emails.
>
>Hi Eric!
>
>What is their "situation"? Is this about their gear getting stolen
>(that was a while ago) or is this something new?
>
>Thanks,
>BN
>
>
>
_________________________________________________________________
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