By Jessie Burchette
jburchette@salisburypost.com
ROCKWELL ó Police Chief Hugh Bost doesn’t mince words about what the Internet has done to small-town crime fighting.
The Internet and its array of auction and service sites such as Craigslist and eBay has made small-town crime fighting a lot more difficult.
“It used to be crime was localized. You’d have a break-in in Rockwell, you could find the suspects in Rowan County or close by and get the property back,” Bost said Monday. “Now it’s going across the whole United States. It makes it very difficult for us to do anything.”He cited his efforts to get a look at a marble-top table offered on Craigslist that appeared to be an exact match of a table stolen in Rockwell.
A Craigslist official basically blew him off, Bost said, suggesting he could bid on the table.
Bost has gotten used to being blown off by the Internet operations, as well as the bigger law enforcement agencies.A couple of years ago, a Rockwell youth who was headed for college bought a car on eBay. He sent his $4,000 and waited for the car.
He never got the car and never got a dime back.
Bost checked into it as much as he could, learning the seller had listed a California telephone number. The car was supposed to be in Virginia.
And the $4,000 money order was cashed at O’Hare Airport in Chicago.
Bost tried to get help from the FBI in Charlotte.
“They didn’t want to deal with it,” he said. “They had a $70,000 loss threshold.”
Bost tried a different tack.
Since there were 20 bidders on the $4,000 car, he reasoned the scammer probably had 20 winners with a total take of $80,000. That would get him past the $70,000 threshold.
The FBI still wasn’t interested but did agree to take a look at the case if Bost would send all the paperwork and information.
Two years later, Bost said he still hasn’t heard a word from the FBI.
Meanwhile, more Rockwell residents have fallen prey to various Internet scams.
“We’ve dealt with a lot of financial fraud. We’ve had people who have lost money,” Bost said.
“I hate the Internet.”