Two brothers from Hoover, Alabama, apparently mistook eBay for a giant online pawn shop, raking in over a million dollars selling stolen goods. Abdurrahman and Yahya Amar, aged 32 and 33 respectively, have pleaded guilty to running a rather successful, albeit illegal, online fencing operation.
According to their plea agreements, the Amar brothers were the masterminds behind a network of “boosters” – professional shoplifters with a penchant for snagging shiny new electronics and tools from big-box stores like Walmart, Target, Home Depot, and Lowe’s.
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The Amars, knowing full well these items were hot off the shelves and not in the legal sense, bought them at a bargain price.
Then, like any savvy entrepreneur, they marked up the prices (though still well below retail) and listed the stolen loot on eBay and Facebook Marketplace. It seems bargain hunters across the globe couldn’t resist their deals, as the brothers completed over 7,000 sales, pocketing a cool $1 million.
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Alas, their entrepreneurial spirit crossed a legal line. Now, they each face up to five years in prison for their conspiracy to engage in interstate transportation of stolen goods. It looks like their get-rich-quick scheme might end up costing them a bit more than they bargained for.
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