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Help from the comic community

78 posts in this topic

Honestly if the person were to reach out to me and say I'm sorry I have your books and want to return them I would accept them back and leave it at that. It's really killed my want to continue collecting and what's more upsetting is that it's not only affecting me but also my fiancé. Do whatever you want to me but if it affects her then that's a different story

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Keep hope-a large percentage of these type thefts the books get returned and the miscreants punished. He has already left a trail, and as he goes to sell them he leaves more trails.

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Honestly if the person were to reach out to me and say I'm sorry I have your books and want to return them I would accept them back and leave it at that. It's really killed my want to continue collecting and what's more upsetting is that it's not only affecting me but also my fiancé. Do whatever you want to me but if it affects her then that's a different story

He should do that. It would be easy. What city are you in? He could anonymously mail all the books to a disinterested third party, such as your favorite LCS, if he's worried about getting caught. He should mail them to somebody who can deliver them to you safely, and send you an anonymous email letting you know they're on the way. That would be pretty easy -- he'd just have to be careful not to identify himself when mailing them (which the USPS makes a little tricky). Just a "here's your books back," and a "no questions asked" return, hopefully with an apology. If the guy has any heart, that's what he'd do. Maybe it was a spur-of-the-moment decision and he didn't realize how severely he would be damaging somebody's life. There's really only one thing to do, which is return the books.

 

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The odds are stacked against him-turning them in would be smart. Most of the stolen comic stories posted on the boards, the guys get caught.

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I've done pretty much all that and contacted every dealer and store owner in Florida. Some more welcoming than others. The comics were stolen outside the center at approximately 2 pm on Thursday and the book was sold to the dealer between 10 am and 1130 am on Friday. I spent my entire time at the con pretty much looking for the books day in and day out open to close. There was no surveillance at the convention center until Saturday when they put a comers up after hearing that the dealer was scammed as well and also the camera was only place on that isle.

This is very useful information for anybody who took photos. They should especially look through their pics for somebody fat, age 50+, gray mustache, gray hair, and/or with a military-type hat between noonish and 3 p.m. Thursday, and between 9 a.m. and 12:30 on Friday.

 

You might consider putting out a general message to everybody who took photos during those times, asking for them to look through the backgrounds of their images. I am sure many people would like to help. Once you have some images of possible suspects, you can forward them to the dealer and see if they look familiar. If he zeroes in on somebody, you can send that image to the police and to the media, as well as posting it online and sending it everywhere.

 

Questions: I know the dealer was vague, and not paying attention, but he should have been. Maybe if you ask him leading questions, he can at least rule out certain things, or maybe he'll remember some detail about the thief and his physical appearance.

 

The thief is supposedly round. How round? Obese or just a pot belly?

 

He is said to have slicked-back gray hair. How long is the hair? How did the dealer see that it was slicked-back under the military hat -- was it coming out from under the hat, at the sides, or something? (This might be helpful when examining photos.)

 

Military-style hat: Would that be a baseball type hat with a brim, or what? Camouflage colored? Or just military-style? Black / gray / navy / etc.?

 

The man had a gray mustache. Bushy? Thin? (Slicked-back gray hair and gray mustache -- could it have been Stan Lee?) Did he have a beard or goattee to go with it?

 

Was his face fat, thin, or anything like that? Did he have on glasses?

 

Did he have anything memorable about his shirt and clothes? Anything else? Did he look like he was dressed for a Comics convention, with comic accessories or anything, or was he completely nondescript with nothing noteworthy that stood out?

 

The bag that you had all your comics in -- what color, size, and shape was it? He might have carried it around a while before discarding it, who knows.

 

Also: You say you were "outside" when the comics were stolen. You mean outside the main convention floor, or physically outside under the sky? Were you in an area that required convention access, or were you in a public-access area? I am curious if this was an attendee or just somebody in the neighborhood.

 

I am also curious, were you showing off your comics prior to them being stolen? That is, was there any reason anybody at the convention would have known you had super-valuable comics in your bag, and thus might have been following you around waiting for the chance to take them? If it's possible they targeted you, then they might have seen you at a location earlier where you had them out. Narrowing down that location might also help with finding a time/place to look for photos.

 

I don't know if I'm being helpful or just picking at your scab and making it worse, but rest assured my intention is to be helpful.

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I did some Google searches on Megacon 2016 photo galleries and found quite a few. If people want to crowdsource the act of scanning through photos and trying to find somebody who matches the description of the thief, here is a partial list of some photos where they can do so:

 

MEGACON 2016 PHOTO GALLERIES:

 

Epbot: Specific to THURSDAY

EPbot -- Cosplay

 

FLORIDA MEDIA SITES:

Orlando Sentinel: Cosplayers etc.

Orlando Weekly

Orlando Weekly -- another gallery

ICFlorida

Central Florida Future

Florida Today

Florida Today (another)

WFTV

 

PHOTO POSTING SITES:

Imgur -- a gallery

Imgur -- another gallery (probably many more out there)

Instragram -- Megacon tagged photos

Flickr -- photos tagged Megacon 2016

Tumblr - tagged Megacon 2016

 

VARIOUS:

Inside the Magic

Monkeys Fighting Robots

The Fairy Traveler

Bizjournals

Japanator

 

Google photo searches (adjust the search terms as you see fit):

megacon + 2016 + cosplay

megacon + 2016 + thursday

megacon + 2016 + friday

 

Huge photo with lots of people:

I think this is from Thursday

 

MESSAGE BOARDS TO TRY ASKING PEOPLE FOR HELP:

Cosplay.com -- I see people asking each other to help find photos of this and that

Reddit -- Lots of Megacon attendees active on Reddit, and eager to help with things like this

 

Photo I found with guy in background at right that looks like a 50+ guy, gray, etc: (just an example of the kind of search help people might be willing to do) -- PHOTO

 

NOT HELPFUL BUT INTERESTING:

Photo that will make you feel funny inside

Photo that is wrong in so many ways

 

Finally, I just want to warn everybody that if you look through photos from Megacon, you will have to endure the hardship of seeing lots and lots of images that look something like this:

162927.jpg.a83d562fd360afa70a7cfdaafa9dd2aa.jpg

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He said the guy was fatter

Do yourself a favor and post this stuff on Reddit (as well as here), the sleuths there are like a gaggle of Columbos.

 

I'm interested in your answers to my questions above (about the details) if you have time to address them. Not to be demanding, I'm just curious and think it could help.

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What was posted on the bleeding cool article is pretty much all the info the dealer could give me on the individual. This all happened literally right outside the building doors. They were in my fiancés tote bag that said totes engaged on the side but doesn't seem to be the same bag he was carrying on Friday when he went to sell books. The bag he described was a blue draw string bag. And he mentioned that when he was selling the GSX to him he offered him an Asm 15 but he didn't take it. I believe after he sold that one book he left the show because I searched like crazy and everyone who matched the description he said it wasn't them. I don't know how to use Reddit at all and being that I am mostly on my phone due to having a computer makes it even more difficult

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What was posted on the bleeding cool article is pretty much all the info the dealer could give me on the individual. This all happened literally right outside the building doors. They were in my fiancés tote bag that said totes engaged on the side but doesn't seem to be the same bag he was carrying on Friday when he went to sell books. The bag he described was a blue draw string bag. And he mentioned that when he was selling the GSX to him he offered him an Asm 15 but he didn't take it. I believe after he sold that one book he left the show because I searched like crazy and everyone who matched the description he said it wasn't them. I don't know how to use Reddit at all and being that I am mostly on my phone due to having a computer makes it even more difficult

 

Too bad about the dealer not being more alert, but he probably met hundreds of people so I guess it's to be expected.

 

There are also a lot of Megacon 2016 videos; maybe the guy can be seen in the background in one of these:

Video

Video

Video

 

Kinda like looking for a needle in a haystack, but if you get 50 people all looking, they can divide everything up 50 ways, etc. (Or 500 people, or 5,000....which is why I mention Reddit. Maybe somebody here can post on your behalf.)

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What was posted on the bleeding cool article is pretty much all the info the dealer could give me on the individual. This all happened literally right outside the building doors. They were in my fiancés tote bag that said totes engaged on the side but doesn't seem to be the same bag he was carrying on Friday when he went to sell books. The bag he described was a blue draw string bag. And he mentioned that when he was selling the GSX to him he offered him an Asm 15 but he didn't take it. I believe after he sold that one book he left the show because I searched like crazy and everyone who matched the description he said it wasn't them. I don't know how to use Reddit at all and being that I am mostly on my phone due to having a computer makes it even more difficult

 

Too bad about the dealer not being more alert, but he probably met hundreds of people so I guess it's to be expected.

 

There are also a lot of Megacon 2016 videos; maybe the guy can be seen in the background in one of these:

Video

Video

Video

 

Kinda like looking for a needle in a haystack, but if you get 50 people all looking, they can divide everything up 50 ways, etc. (Or 500 people, or 5,000....which is why I mention Reddit. Maybe somebody here can post on your behalf.)

Went thru the last 2 videos pausing every 1-2 sec nothing.

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