One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
Where does the time go? They say that time flies by when you’re having fun. And I’ve had plenty of fun. A non-stop party.
I’ve danced. I’ve dined.
Romanced. Laughed. Lived.
I’m twenty-four now. And for the past five years I’ve been a burglar. I’ve robbed over fifty homes and have only been caught once. I pleaded guilty.
My attorney told me to tell the judge that, “I needed the money to pay my rent. I never did anything like that before and would never do it again.”
Two years’ probation. I couldn’t believe it. I almost started laughing in court, but my attorney gave me a stern look. My mom was so relieved that she started crying. That happened three years ago, and I haven’t been caught since.
When I first started this business, my uncle taught me what to do and introduced me to people that would help me. I was so naive.
Do you know that there is an underground network of people that provide professional burglars with information, and they get paid for the information? In the beginning I didn’t know that.
The information can come from a waitress working in a diner in a rich neighborhood that learns that the rich family is going on vacation. It can come from a postal worker that delivers their mail. It can come from a bartender. It can come from a cop. It can come from a real estate agent working in the area. It can come from a nanny.
It can come from anywhere dark.
All you have to know is who to give the information to. The average person doesn’t know. But those that do make a nice side income. There is an underground market for everything. And people get paid for referrals.
There was one guy I knew that made over 50K referring people to guys that would set them up with fake Social Security numbers. And other fake State IDs.
Fraud everywhere. Corruption everywhere. Everyone is looting the government piggy bank, and no one is held accountable.
Even dead people are receiving government checks. They even received Covid checks.
Too much fraud. Too much corruption. Impossible to track it all down. And we know that.
If you’re a criminal, the prison system is like going to college. It’s a great place to learn or refine your craft. My uncle learned many things there.
He learned how to use a computer. And he learned how to rob people using it.
Simple scam.
Attack them with a virus. It will freeze their computer and have a warning appear on their screen.
“Warning! Your system has been compromised by hackers. All your private information is at risk. Contact this number immediately.”
A telephone number starts flashing on the person’s screen. And to make the warning even more ominous… It is accompanied by a loud sounding alarm.
When people call the number on their computer screen the con artist pretends to work for the computer company.
The mark, not thinking and worried that his bank information and other financial information is at risk… allows the scammer access to his computer.
The scammer has him download a program that makes that possible.
And while that is happening the scammer tells him not to hang up. He needs to resolve this issue immediately. And starts asking him a series of questions about his computer.
Part of the scam.
The scammer wants to keep the mark focused and worried. The scammer also doesn’t want the mark to call someone else. Someone that might be thinking more clearly. Someone that might question what is going on.
The program has been downloaded.
The scammer now has access to the computer… and he now steers the mark to his bank account, and other financial accounts, on the pretense that they needed to check to see if anything was stolen.
The scammer can see the mark enter his password into the different accounts.
Once the scammer assures the mark that his account is safe, he tells the mark that he will receive an email — part of the scam — so that he can rate the help that he received.
The scammer says goodbye and hangs up.
But the scammer still has access to the marks computer and starts transferring money from the marks bank accounts or other financial accounts. The scammer robs the guy blind.
Out of one hundred people: how many people would fall for this scam?
All you need is one. And you’ve made a nice score. And seniors are the most gullible. Not only because of their age but also because they are not technologically savvy.
And that is why they like to do the scams in the afternoon. When the adults that a senior citizen might be living with are at work or at school.
Easy prey.
Just one of many scams.
When my uncle found out that a friend of mine, Gerard, who moved to Pennsylvania, was working at an upscale watch factory there, making these really expensive watches, he challenged me to a bet.
He said to me, “Let’s see how smart you are. How can you steal watches from that factory? If you don’t figure it out… you owe me a steak dinner.”
I took the bet, but I knew that it was impossible. Gerard and I had already talked about it.
But I was curious. Maybe my uncle really could figure out a way.
No one could enter the factory with a bag. Not even a jacket or coat.
They had a separate room, away from the factory entrance, for employees to keep their personal belongings.
And after their shift finished, the employees had to leave through an exit in the rear of the factory that had a metal detector. And from there they could go and pick up their belongings.
It was impossible.
I finally figured it out. I felt like I was struck with a lightning bolt. I had an epiphany.
I proudly told my uncle, “You can take the expensive watches and throw them out the window, and someone outside can catch them.”
My uncle started laughing. And so did his two friends, Sally and Patrick.
I started oozing red. I felt like a fool.
But my mom wasn’t laughing. She was listening behind the door.
I never saw her hit her younger brother, my uncle before. But she came storming into the living room and started pounding on him while yelling, “Why are you teaching him these things. You’re teaching him to be a criminal.”
I didn’t find out that day how to steal the watches from the factory. But eventually my uncle told me.
Have you figured it out?
You never will. It’s so simple.
You throw the watches in the garbage. Four or five a day. Eight or nine a day. Whatever you can.
At this watch factory, every night, after the workers went home, the owner, accompanied by a security guard, would watch the maintenance worker take the garbage to the front of the factory, exit, and go to the service area elevators.
These elevators left the worker off in the back of the factory, in the garbage area.
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
Gerard started doing what my uncle told him. Just a few at a time.
Benny, an accomplice and friend of Gerard’s who also lived in the area, would pretend to be a homeless man.
And every night, he would go to the garbage area in the back of the factory. He would open up the bags of garbage. But he wasn’t looking for food, or a place to sleep. He was looking for expensive upscale watches that sold for around two thousand dollars each.
Gerard did it for only one month. My uncle didn’t want to get greedy. He felt that even the dumb factory owners would eventually figure out that their inventory was disappearing.
In one month, Gerard threw in the garbage a total of one hundred watches. The average retail value for each was 2,500 dollars.
They stole 250,000 dollars.
I would later learn that this way of stealing was not unknown.
Professional thieves would even work regular jobs to infiltrate a company.
And throwing out merchandise with garbage has been around for decades.
That’s why they say, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”
The story will be continued in The Burglar 3
Photo by Lumensoft Technologies via Unsplash
Fictional stories by John Saccone 
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