eBay find implicates thieves

By Diane Brooks
Times Snohomish County Bureau

One of the sets of Schulmerich handbells stolen over the summer from Alderwood Community Church in Lynnwood. Eight cases of handbells and hand chimes were taken and pawned, police said.

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Six of eight cases of Schulmerich handbells and Malmark hand chimes stolen from Alderwood Community Church in Lynnwood were sold by local pawnshops through eBay to buyers as far away as Pennsylvania for a combined $4,129.

A 21-year-old Everett man — a former church member — was arrested Tuesday, and police expect to arrest his alleged accomplices.

The church didn't discover its collection of nearly 100 bells and chimes was missing until Labor Day weekend because its bell choir took a summer hiatus. Police, however, say the instruments were sold to pawnshops in July and August.

The Lynnwood church filed a Sept. 24 police report and alerted members of the American Guild of English Handbell Ringers. A guild member in Texas then noticed some of the stolen bells on eBay, said Lynnwood Detective Doug Teachworth.

eBay's online records show that five buyers purchased six cases of the bells and chimes from two local pawnshops — Diversified Loans & Music in north Lynnwood and Pawn X-Change in south Everett, both on Highway 99.

Teachworth said he used pawnshop records to track the instruments to two of the suspects.

He found an additional case of handbells at another Lynnwood shop, Cascade Pawn, and returned it to the church. Cascade's records implicated the arrested man, he said.

One case, which contained chimes, remains unaccounted for.

Federal and state laws strictly regulate pawnshops, which require sellers to provide either a driver's license or passport. That data must be reported to local law-enforcement agencies within 24 hours.

Brad Shain, president and chief executive officer of Redmond-based Pawn X-Change, said his company was dismayed by the discovery. He called the church last month to offer compensation, he said.
 
"I said we'd either do a donation or buy new bells," he said. "It's the right thing to do."

The suspects, if convicted, would be required to pay restitution for any instruments not recovered, Teachworth said.

The three suspects apparently entered the church on several days over a two-week period, each time walking out with cases of bells and chimes, he said.

The church declined to comment on the case. The arrested man had attended the church "for years and years and years," Teachworth said, but was not a current member.

The suspects received a total of $800 to $1,000 from the three pawnshops, Teachworth said.

The arrested man, a student at Edmonds Community College, is the only one with a police record, Teachworth said. Several months ago, police interviewed him regarding a sound-mixer board he'd pawned that was stolen from the college.

At the time, he told police he didn't realize it was stolen, Teachworth said. He said he'd pawned it for a friend, one of the other suspects in the handbell case.

The bells and chimes sold on eBay in August and October for prices ranging from $205.94 for a set of six handbells to $903 for a set of 13.

Teachworth said police would try to recover all of them.

One buyer, who yesterday identified himself only as John P., said he had been tracking handbell auctions on eBay for four months before he purchased the lowest-priced set about nine weeks ago.

"I've been wanting to buy handbells for a very long time," he said in an e-mail. "Since this was a very, very good deal, I had to buy it. So I did."

He said he had no idea they'd been stolen and asked how to reach Teachworth.

"They're beautifully crafted, [and] they sound great," said the man, who lives in Pittsburgh.

This is Teachworth's second high-profile case involving eBay.

In July, Lynnwood police arrested five Chinese nationals, all living in Lynnwood on student visas, for allegedly selling stolen goods on eBay. Teachworth said a Moscow, Russia, man was using credit-card numbers stolen in Japan to buy mail-order merchandise that was shipped to the Lynnwood suspects. The five people arrested were freed, and the case is under investigation.

Diane Brooks: 425-745-7802 or dbrooks@seattletimes.com