A Florida Keys man bought an electric reel. The deal turned out to be too good to be true
After buying an expensive electric fishing reel from a man he met online this month, a Florida Keys man contacted the manufacturer to have the gear’s serial number transferred to his name.
While on the phone with Lindgren-Pitman, the maker of the LP S2-1200 reel, a representative told him it was stolen from someone in La Marque, Texas.
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said the man, who the agency did not name, saw the reel listed on the OfferUp app and arranged to buy it from the seller for $3,800. The transaction went down Feb. 3 in a Miami-Dade County parking lot.
After the buyer got home and found out it was stolen, he went to the sheriff’s office to report the crime.
Monroe Detective Ian Barnett called LaMarque police, and they told him they were told in January that a reel was purchased over the phone from a local vendor with a credit card. The transaction was processed without incident, but it later turned out — after an unknown man picked up the reel — that the credit card was stolen, said Adam Linhardt, sheriff’s office spokesman.
Sheriff’s detectives said the man who sold the reel in February is 42-year-old Duglas Faife from Miami. Barnett called his counterparts at the Miami-Dade Police Department, and they set up a second buy with Faife, Linhardt said.
An undercover officer met Faife at another Miami-Dade parting lot, and bought another item from him on Monday. After the buy, officers arrested Faife. He faces grand theft and dealing in stolen property charges. Faife, who could not be reached for comment, was released on a $5,000 bond Tuesday, according to Miami-Dade County court records.
“The case would not have been possible without our law enforcement partners in Miami and the assistance of the La Marque Texas Police Department,” Linhardt said in a statement Friday.
The stolen reel turned out to have a retail price of about $5,500, according to the sheriff’s office.
“The sheriff’s office reminds residents that if a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” Lindhardt said.
