[BOUNTY] Info leading to criminal arrest in ASIC Theft. Escrow via John K.

[CrazyGuy]

Current Bounty
BTC50

Current USD amount of bounty


https://blockchain.info/address/1E36mb8tWuEarA9b99v179CoAkudoadzQS
Bounty is escrowed with John K. and open for donations. Please read below for more details

Bounty Details
I am offering a minimum of 50 BTC for information leading to the arrest of the individual that broke into my house and stole a Batch #2 Avalon ASIC. The burglary occurred at exactly 10:10 AM CST on May 31st 2013, 2.5 days after listing on the forums and eBay. I live in North DFW, in an area with one of the lowest crime rates in America, so this is not a coincidence. I have kept quiet about the burglary while police investigate, but I feel now is the time to take action and provide a little incentive for catching the criminal.

I want to stress that the primary goal of this bounty is not to retrieve my Avalon, but to ensure the criminal who invaded my house and privacy serves due time in prison, and prevent this from happening to anyone else. With that said, I want to encourage those of you that may have purchased a stolen unit second hand to come forward with information about the individual you purchased from. The bounty is available to any individual that provides information leading to an arrest.

Who is eligible, how can you help?
Everyone is eligible.

• Purchased a secondhand Avalon off of eBay, the forums, craigslist? Please contact me. If you are able to provide identifying information on the unit, we can move forward with locating the criminal.
• Provide information on your thieving friend or someone you've seen bragging about stealing an Avalon. I can't imagine someone willing to break into a stranger's home has loyal friends. Surely someone will be willing to rat their criminal buddy out.
• Upvote on reddit. The bounty needs as much exposure as possible to attract an informant.
• Donate to the bounty and help spread the message to lurking criminals that we intend to make sure they don't get away with major theft. I am not the benefactor of bounty donations, and donations can be retracted after each 30 day period(More details in Full Terms). In the event the unit is returned, as a donator, you will receive a percentage of the Avalon's mining power for the life of the unit(no less than 1 year)

Full Terms

• Bounty is run in 30 day intervals, starting June 19th 2013. At the end of 30 days, I will decide wether to continue for another 30 days or not.
• Donators have 24 hour period after each 30 day interval to retract their donation. In the event the bounty is called off, donators will receive a full refund. If you do donate, please remember to donate from your account(not Mtgox or another online account). This will ease the refund process if necessary.
• In the event the unit is returned, donators will receive a percentage of the Avalon's mining power, equal to the percentage donated to full bounty.
• Information must lead to criminal arrest of an individual connected to the burglary. This must be verified before receiving payment.
• Bounty is escrowed with John K. John has been given specific information regarding the case and should only be contacted if you are uncomfortable with speaking me directly

For those of you with ASICs on order, or coming in soon, be careful! There are criminals out there willing to break into your house and take your property. It's easy to forget how much this hardware is worth, and what people are willing to do, when you paid a fraction of the current value.

[1714079776]

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[CrazyGuy]

reserved

[pikeadz]

Copy of the police report with personally identifiable info stricken would be nice.  Otherwise you could just be a guy out to get a free avalon "returned" to him in a roundabout way, or worse, have a fake donation site set up.  Just saying, the more info you provide (within reason), the better for all.

[CrazyGuy]

Copy of the police report with personally identifiable info stricken would be nice.  Otherwise you could just be a guy out to get a free avalon "returned" to him in a roundabout way, or worse, have a fake donation site set up.  Just saying, the more info you provide (within reason), the better for all.

I don't have a copy of the police report on hand, but I'll see what I can do. The donation address is escrowed with John K. and I have explicitly stated that the goal of the bounty is to get information leading to an arrest, not retrieve my Avalon.

[twitami1]

That is seriously the suck dude--I hope you catch the bastard.

[Dalkore]

I wish you my condolences.  Stay focused and hopefully someone will step forward and help out your situation.  Man!

[kibblesnbits]

Anything else taken or just the Avalon?

[pikeadz]

Copy of the police report with personally identifiable info stricken would be nice.  Otherwise you could just be a guy out to get a free avalon "returned" to him in a roundabout way, or worse, have a fake donation site set up.  Just saying, the more info you provide (within reason), the better for all.

I don't have a copy of the police report on hand, but I'll see what I can do. The donation address is escrowed with John K. and I have explicitly stated that the goal of the bounty is to get information leading to an arrest, not retrieve my Avalon.

Cool.  Hope you find the fucker and share who he is with us.  Upvoted the reddit thread and am always on the lookout for Avalons on ebay and other places.  If any are sold from the DFW area anytime soon, there's a good chance it will be yours.

[Viceroy]

a guy in austin offered to sell an Avalon that was not his.  perhaps this is your guy?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=227232.0

[TheSwede75]

I really hope that the person responsible gets jail time and a hefty Avalon sized fine. Also; I have never seen a thread be so well matched with forum avatar...

[CrazyGuy]

Anything else taken or just the Avalon?

Just the Avalon, left behind a few FPGA miners. He obviously wanted to be in and out very quickly. I've since moved what's left to a remote location.

[GigaWave]

Did you post your address up publicly something?

[CoinHoarder]

I'm very sorry to hear this CrazyBlane, it is quite unfortunate.

Good luck finding the perpetrator.

[gbx]

Yeah, I'm sorry to hear that... This is some crazy wild west territory we're in, but this is the first I've heard of someone being physically robbed from to get the coin.  

Here's my thoughts based on your information.

1.  How many people knew you had this box?  They're all suspect IMHO.  Including the original shipper...  Avalon I presume?

2.  Concerning eBay.  Who have you done business with in the past that might look at your "items for sale" link that are related to bitcoin.  Buy any riser cards?  Any bitcoin paraphernalia that would give someone a shipping address on your box based on a previous purchase?  All suspect IMHO.  I don't see how a random passer by on eBay would be able to obtain your address without buying something or selling something to you.

I also see how anyone would brag about a having a "stolen" Avalon.  And if they did, there's honor among thieves...  unfortunately.

I hope you catch the bastard!  I do!!!  I'm sure you've run down all these options... but I'd be looking for people I'd done business with in the past that might be within 0-8 hours drive from where you live.  Chances are, the thief is mining with that and not trying to resell it.  So you might need get some good suspects and then social engineer that situation for a while to get any answers.

You need a home alarm system, a mean dog, and a gun safe loaded to the gills my bitcoin brother...

[logicbomb666]

Holy crap, I hope this mystery is solved.  To think someone specifically targeted the miner and broke into a home to steal it?  That's crazy. 

I am also in the north DFW area, so I will keep an eye out.

[dropt]

It's someone you know.

[bitcoinstarter]

I hope you find this guy that totally is horrible.

[Xian01]

It's someone you know.

It's gut-wrenching to think that, but it is plausible :|

What are the odds ? How was his address obtained ? Did he put it out there ? Need more info.

Either way, good luck recovering your rig and finding the perp. That's just awful, and peculiar, to have such a specifically targeted robbery

[omgitm]

no security cameras?

you might have better luck going around sniffing wifi packets, good 'ol wardrivin'

[01BTC10]

This is sad. You need to think how the thieve got your address. It might might be someone you know personally.