Missing shipment of California hard drives wind up in Gilboa home
PRINCETOWN -- Police say a Schoharie County woman appears to have unwittingly become involved in a scam involving stolen hard drives shipped from California.
State Police began investigating March 3, when they were contacted by an electronics distribution company in Rancho Santa Margareta, Calif. Advanced Electronics Distributors told New York State Police their order for 260 Seagate hard drives had been re-routed at the last minute to an address in Schoharie County.
The hard drives, valued in total at $27,000, were supposed to be delivered to an address in Fremont, Calif., but ended up in Gilboa, N.Y.
On March 5, troopers located the person who received the shipment, a 49-year-old woman who was found in possession of the 260 hard drives.
Police say the woman did not appear to be aware that she had become involved in a scam. She cooperated fully in the investigation and told police she'd met a man online who gained her confidence and told her she would be receiving packages and that she was to re-ship them to an address he'd provide on shipping labels.
The man told her he was a business man working out of the country and that he could not handle the shipping himself.
The shipping labels were addressed to a location in Kindonou, Contonou Benin. Benin is a country on the west coast of Africa.
Police are continuing to investigate.
