# It fell offa da truck: what crime was committed here? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 10, 2009, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-fell-offa-da-truck-what-crime-was-committed-here/485185 "2009-02-10T05:12:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2009, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-fell-offa-da-truck-what-crime-was-committed-here/485185/21 "2009-02-10T15:53:11Z")
Some people on EBay sell empty X-Box boxes; they even explicitly state in the product description (so that they’re off the hook) that all it is is an empty box. Nonetheless many people will bid for said item and get upset when they “win” empty air. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2009, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-fell-offa-da-truck-what-crime-was-committed-here/485185/22 "2009-02-10T21:25:51Z")
> [@](#): > > As he related it, it was a strictly fork-over-your-cash-take-your-box-and-get-the-hell-away-from-here kind of setup. In other words, he assumed he was going to get a great deal in purchasing stolen merchandise. This scam and variants of it have become so common by now that I was surprised when I first learned that the mark was supposed to assume it was stolen. If I were in that situation, I would have assumed from the start that the impromptu merchants were at best selling low-quality merchandise that isn’t worth the price, and it probably wouldn’t even have occured to me that it might be quality stolen merchandise. ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2009, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-fell-offa-da-truck-what-crime-was-committed-here/485185/23 "2009-02-10T22:15:49Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > This scam and variants of it have become so common by now that I was surprised when I first learned that the mark was supposed to assume it was stolen. If I were in that situation, I would have assumed from the start that the impromptu merchants were at best selling low-quality merchandise that isn’t worth the price, and it probably wouldn’t even have occured to me that it might be quality stolen merchandise. I wonder if 30+ years ago it wasn’t as common a scam, as I remember (as a kid) an All In the Family episode where Archie buys what he thinks is a stolen watch (although he doesn’t admit it), and in the (I guess at the time) ‘surprize’ ending finds it to be a fake. Can anyone think of earlier references in popular culture (movies or TV) - I’m not talking about, say, Abbot & Costello being sold a fake treasure map or such, but where one character buys a item he ‘thinks’ is hot, but turns out to be a fake. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2009, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-fell-offa-da-truck-what-crime-was-committed-here/485185/24 "2009-02-10T22:45:40Z")
Wow! Someone who was _literally_ dumber than a box of rocks. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![BigNik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/73ab20/32.png) [@BigNik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigNik)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2009, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-fell-offa-da-truck-what-crime-was-committed-here/485185/25 "2009-02-10T23:16:52Z")
> [@seosamh](#): > > In the UK there’s a crime known as “stealing by finding” which seems to have been introduced under the Theft Act 1964. This has been used by zealous rozzers for prosecuting people who nick things out of skips that other people have thrown out. I had a half-brother (don’t ask about the tenses - it’s a long and bizarre story for another time) who has done time for this in Australia - namely that he took a whole lot of AV equipment from where it had been temporarily left on the nature strip of the footpath outside a home. The filth decided that they couldn’t make a theft charge stick, so they charged him with SbF. Fair cop, too, quite frankly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-fell-offa-da-truck-what-crime-was-committed-here/485185.md?page=1)