Stolen KKG pins! Please help! Pass this along....

[badgeguy]

This is a first for me, and I need to ask for help from anyone on here who has had to deal with stolen badges before.

As many of you may have seen, there are two very beautiful and old Kappa Kappa Gamma badges on eBay or as its said on here "that site". These badges are badge from the early 1900s and belonged to actual siblings.

As it turns out, these pins are stolen pins! These pins along with several other old pins were stolen from a family friend of mine years ago. These pins along with the others were reports stolen over 10 years ago, and they thought that they'd never be able to recover them as they and the police suspected that there had been melted down for scrap gold!

While searching that site, I came upon the current auction and told my friend that I thought they looked familiar, and showed them the auction, to their surprise it was their pins!! These pins had been in the family for decades until they were stolen from their home years ago!

I proceeded to contact the seller to inform him or her of the information about these pins being stolen property, but the seller emailed back with just one sentence that he "bought them from the descendants" and that I am basically full of it!!

Well, needless to say, I had my friend to to contact eBay about these items as well, but they informed them (and to my surprise) that they would need to get the police involved in order to have an auction stopped.....

They have contacted the local police, who are looking into it, but the bad thing is we don't know exactly where this seller is located (other than the state of New Jersey).

So..I came to the only other place I knew where hopefully someone may know or recognize this seller or maybe know a location to where my friends can contact the police to get these pins back.

Anyone who has any knowledge of what they can do to get these back would be most helpful and please PM me or post........

Its great to know that these pins WEREN'T melted down as they had one day hoped to be able to pass these along to their daughters if they ever joined KKG.

I appreciate any advise or info anyone can share, and please know that this has nothing to do with ME, and that I am merely trying to help out a family friend who does not do GC.

**Keeping fingers crossed**
BG

Oh yeah, the pins were from the Spaulding sisters who attended the University of Kansas, and Gertrude had later married a man who was a Sigma Chi. (This info ISNT in the listing, but which is known by the true descendants and rightful owners of the pins!)

[thetalady]

Originally Posted by badgeguy

Oh yeah, the pins were from the Spaulding sisters who attended the University of Kansas, and Gertrude had later married a man who was a Sigma Chi. (This info ISNT in the listing, but which is known by the true descendants and rightful owners of the pins!)

I had researched the information posted about the badges last week. It was incredibly easy, even for me with little in the way of research skills, to find the names of the badge owners, their collegiate affiliation, husbands and husbands' Greek affiliations. None of that is proof of anything.

[WhiteDaisy128]

If they filed a police report when they were stolen, it should be easy to get them back...just contact the police and give them the EBAY link. They'll contact EBAY and take the correct steps to get the pins back to the rightful owners. If no police report was ever filed, it will be much harder.

If those were my pins though, I'd absolutely get the police involved ASAP to get them back.

[badgeguy]

We were concerned about a jurisdiction issue...as we do not live in New Jersey, would a police report, which was indeed filed, would be able to deal with items crossing state lines....I'm not a lawyer or that knowledgeable about such issues....

Thanks.

[Titchou]

Originally Posted by badgeguy

We were concerned about a jurisdiction issue...as we do not live in New Jersey, would a police report, which was indeed filed, would be able to deal with items crossing state lines....I'm not a lawyer or that knowledgeable about such issues....

Thanks.

Yes it would. Jump on it! Get them back!

[WhiteDaisy128]

Originally Posted by badgeguy

We were concerned about a jurisdiction issue...as we do not live in New Jersey, would a police report, which was indeed filed, would be able to deal with items crossing state lines....I'm not a lawyer or that knowledgeable about such issues....

Thanks.

I'm not a lawyer either, but I'd just guess that if an item is stolen, it doesn't matter where it was found - as long as a police report was filed and the item was unique and identifiable, the police should work with you to get it back. If you show EBAY the police report, that might be enough for them.

[AZTheta]

Directly from the ebay site, this is what needs to take place, otherwise your "friend" is SOL:


We don't allow stolen property to be sold on eBay. It’s against the law and against eBay policies to sell stolen property.

If you believe that an item on eBay may be a stolen item, please:

1. Get the item number and the seller's user ID.
2. Inform your local police and ask them to get in touch with us. You can find local law enforcement officers on the USACops website.
3. Tell the officers to email us at stopfraud@ebay.com

Please note that we can only investigate such a serious allegation if it comes from the police.

[ComradesTrue]

Originally Posted by badgeguy

This is a stunning old KKG pin. Really like the turquoise. Also, the name on back, is that the KKG Founder Mary Stewart? OR was this a relative to her?? Very cool.

Originally Posted by badgeguy

The date is 1885, and yes knowing they were founded in 1870, just wondering if this pin belonged to a sister, or daughter or relative of the founder, or could this have been another key given to Mary Stewart in 1885 for special reasons? I'm unfamiliar with how pins are engraved for KKG.

Other groups their engraving are sometimes easier to determine school or chapters.

BG

Originally Posted by badgeguy

After sending emails to all the schools that had KKG chapters, it appears that this pin was from a Ella May Stewart who was at the University of Wisconsin, Eta Chapter, but never graduated. The archives had a photo of her as well.


Its so cool discovering out new things. And yeah for digitalizing old archive material!

Originally Posted by badgeguy

I'm using the photos for my Bairds photo album and wanted to have the correct info.

Originally Posted by badgeguy

Gee, that would be a shame. But, when it come to gathering information about all the various groups, a place like GC is exactly what one needs these days. It's a great resource that helps one to be able to work on a huge project as I've been working on to update the old Bairds manuals. Even William R Baird relied on the graciousness of others to supply him information on all the various groups in order to try and have as accurate as possible the information to create his manuals.

Thanks to all who are willing and interested in helping me gather information so that I can make sure I have as accurate of information as I can when I complete the project.

Cheers.
BG

Originally Posted by badgeguy

This is a first for me, and I need to ask for help from anyone on here who has had to deal with stolen badges before.

As many of you may have seen, there are two very beautiful and old Kappa Kappa Gamma badges on eBay or as its said on here "that site". These badges are badge from the early 1900s and belonged to actual siblings.

As it turns out, these pins are stolen pins! These pins along with several other old pins were stolen from a family friend of mine years ago. These pins along with the others were reports stolen over 10 years ago, and they thought that they'd never be able to recover them as they and the police suspected that there had been melted down for scrap gold!

While searching that site, I came upon the current auction and told my friend that I thought they looked familiar, and showed them the auction, to their surprise it was their pins!! These pins had been in the family for decades until they were stolen from their home years ago!

I proceeded to contact the seller to inform him or her of the information about these pins being stolen property, but the seller emailed back with just one sentence that he "bought them from the descendants" and that I am basically full of it!!

Well, needless to say, I had my friend to to contact eBay about these items as well, but they informed them (and to my surprise) that they would need to get the police involved in order to have an auction stopped.....

They have contacted the local police, who are looking into it, but the bad thing is we don't know exactly where this seller is located (other than the state of New Jersey).

So..I came to the only other place I knew where hopefully someone may know or recognize this seller or maybe know a location to where my friends can contact the police to get these pins back.

Anyone who has any knowledge of what they can do to get these back would be most helpful and please PM me or post........

Its great to know that these pins WEREN'T melted down as they had one day hoped to be able to pass these along to their daughters if they ever joined KKG.

I appreciate any advise or info anyone can share, and please know that this has nothing to do with ME, and that I am merely trying to help out a family friend who does not do GC.

**Keeping fingers crossed**
BG

Oh yeah, the pins were from the Spaulding sisters who attended the University of Kansas, and Gertrude had later married a man who was a Sigma Chi. (This info ISNT in the listing, but which is known by the true descendants and rightful owners of the pins!)

So, BG, you first noticed these badges on 1/19, have been poking around here trying to get posters to provide you background info, have researched all over the place about these badges/ladies, but only last night (1/27) realized that these were stolen from a friend of yours?

Personally, I would think it would be unusual for many items from the same estate to be stolen 10 years ago and then all wind up on a re-sale site the same week. How have they (and by they I don't just mean the two Kappa Keys) remained together this long despite being stolen property? Would be interesting to know.

[AZTheta]

Good points. Some additional questions come to mind:

Why only ask about the Kappa keys? What about the other items? Why here?

I wonder if this seller knows that he is being accused of selling stolen property? Interfering in someone's ability to make a living is not a good idea.

As reported, ebay has a very strong policy in place re: stolen property. For a seller to feign surprise at their policy is duplicitousness. There's no need to cross fingers. Simply have the police contact ebay if the story being told has merit or veracity. That's all.

[FloridaTish]

Originally Posted by ComradesTrue

So, BG, you first noticed these badges on 1/19, have been poking around here trying to get posters to provide you background info, have researched all over the place about these badges/ladies, but only last night (1/27) realized that these were stolen from a friend of yours?

Personally, I would think it would be unusual for many items from the same estate to be stolen 10 years ago and then all wind up on a re-sale site the same week. How have they (and by they I don't just mean the two Kappa Keys) remained together this long despite being stolen property? Would be interesting to know.

I have to say you totally rock for bringing up all all these extremely valid points, ComradesTrue!

[badgeguy]

You are very correct in that I have been doing research. That's my passion. I keep tabs on all sorts of pins and memorabilia being sold on eBay and other sites. I take the pictures, if they are good and use them for my website and planned update to the old Bairds manuals. I have photos and info on all sorts of old pins and new ones, and from defunct groups. In regards to THESE pins, they are in fact from a box of jewelry that was stolen from a friend over ten years ago....

To see these pins pop up was a surprise to my friend as we had thought surely these pins would have been melted down. The timing is odd, yes, but my hunch is that this seller, who may have acquired these pins years ago from the thief or they have been passed around since they were stolen....I do not know that answer. An email to the seller did not reveal anything other than he was not willing to listen to my friends information and questions.
I also suspect that this seller may have had these pins for awhile and saw that older KKG key sell for a good deal of money and thought about trying to "cash in" on the same type of pins.

The bad part is that if the police aren't able to stop the auction by the end of the auction, then whoever does "buy" these may be out the pins and the money should the police be able to investigate and retrieve the items.

Personally, I have never had something like this come up to me, and so yes I am a little nieve on how the process works. So thanks to those who did supply the info.

I'm sure if anyone else had had this happen to them they would do whatever was possible to get their items back as well.

I will always try to help out friends whenever possible and should I ever come across any other pins from any org where I learn they were stolen, I'd so whatever I could to ensure those items returned to their owners!

Thanks
BG

[AZTheta]

Originally Posted by badgeguy

You are very correct in that I have been doing research. That's my passion. I keep tabs on all sorts of pins and memorabilia being sold on eBay and other sites. I take the pictures, if they are good and use them for my website and planned update to the old Bairds manuals. I have photos and info on all sorts of old pins and new ones, and from defunct groups. In regards to THESE pins, they are in fact from a box of jewelry that was stolen from a friend over ten years ago....

To see these pins pop up was a surprise to my friend as we had thought surely these pins would have been melted down. The timing is odd, yes, but my hunch is that this seller, who may have acquired these pins years ago from the thief or they have been passed around since they were stolen....I do not know that answer. An email to the seller did not reveal anything other than he was not willing to listen to my friends information and questions.
I also suspect that this seller may have had these pins for awhile and saw that older KKG key sell for a good deal of money and thought about trying to "cash in" on the same type of pins.

The bad part is that if the police aren't able to stop the auction by the end of the auction, then whoever does "buy" these may be out the pins and the money should the police be able to investigate and retrieve the items.

Personally, I have never had something like this come up to me, and so yes I am a little nieve on how the process works. So thanks to those who did supply the info.

I'm sure if anyone else had had this happen to them they would do whatever was possible to get their items back as well.

I will always try to help out friends whenever possible and should I ever come across any other pins from any org where I learn they were stolen, I'd so whatever I could to ensure those items returned to their owners!

Thanks
BG

You're welcome. It was simple to go to ebay and get the right answer.

ebay stops the auction. The buyer (if it isn't stopped) isn't out anything, as the items will be confiscated, the buyer will have $ refunded per ebay policies. You just need to read.

As a seller, why should he listen to an anonymous message without any verification? Your "friend" probably filed a police report and an insurance claim. Remember, recovered property belongs to the insurance company. Did you forget about that detail? The insurance company MAY allow the owner to buy the items back. And that is another conversation.

[amIblue?]

I don't buy your story badgeguy, but whatever.

Regarding Kappa keys, the Keepers of the Key would appreciate if GCers (or anyone else) do not bid on our keys on ebay. We have a group of very dedicated women who rescue these from ebay, and they will outbid anyone. Sisters can then reimburse the keepers for these keys if they are interested in them.

[FloridaTish]

Originally Posted by badgeguy

I also suspect that this seller may have had these pins for awhile and saw that older KKG key sell for a good deal of money and thought about trying to "cash in" on the same type of pins.

Personally I think it it utter garbage that you are publicly trashing this seller and calling him out for knowingly selling "stolen" merchandise. Who are you to make that assessment?

If your "friend" has a police report, go through the channels and have the listing ended per eBay policy, plain and simple. Plus, I'm sure your "friend" was smart enough to have the pins insured so he was compensated for his loss, right?

Oh and am I to assume the KKG spoons the seller is also selling were also kept in the same "box of jewelry"? Because I know I keep all my grandmothers flatware in my jewelery box for safekeeping.

[badgeguy]

This is a note from my friend: "That besides priceless family pins that were stolen... Both of your friends personal badges from their F&S were stolen along with the Keys.. And most if their honor pins... PBK. ODK etc were stolen as well ... And they never dreamed after this long that anything would surface.... And are now hoping that this might lead to the recovery of their own original badges... How would they/GC feel if their original badge was stolen ? Anyone would want their original badge back... and this is the first time in over 14 years we have ever had any hope of that ever happening!"