Seller is selling our stolen items and ebay will not remove them

[henley-theatre-services]

So around 5 weeks ago one of our work vehicles was broken into and around £10k worth of equipment was stolen. within a week a few of the same items turned up for sale on a US registered ebay account, weirdly they were the exact same items also showing the serial numbers of our stolen items.  After a little digging i could see by the feedback the account was registered in the US but seemed to post from the UK, perhaps to deliberately mislead - and they sell mainly to UK buyers and a lot of similar electronic gear used in the events and installation industry. We filed a police report and given a crime reference number to ebay however they keep point blank refusing to look into it with a generic response saying they will not remove the items or continue with the case.

The seller has since removed some of the items but one is still active, its very frustrating, anyone else had similar problems? 

[wgwillia]

typical of  eBay don't want to get involved and turn a blind eye.

[zamiocalculus]

According to the User Agreement, eBay see themselves as a facilitator only - 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/member-behaviour-policies/user-agreement?id=4259 

"Except for certain checks, including those designed to verify that listings do not include illegal content (as described in the Illegal content section), eBay does not review users' listings or content. While we may help facilitate the resolution of disputes through various programmes, eBay has no control over, and, unless expressly provided, does not guarantee the existence, quality, safety or legality of, items advertised; the truth or accuracy of users' content, listings or Feedback; the ability of sellers to sell items; the ability of buyers to pay for items; or that a buyer or seller will actually complete a transaction or return an item." 

Frustrating, I know, but they are unlikely to take any further action unless required to do so by law.

Your best bet is to give law enforcement a prod with any associated item numbers, images, etc from the relevant listings of your stolen property. 

Good luck!

[zamiocalculus]

I'm not defending eBay here, but if an investigation is ongoing they may be obliged not to comment further or take any other action unless instructed to do so by law enforcement agencies. 

This is a standard procedure for most companies.

[henley-theatre-services]

Not really sure how me telling ebay the items belong to us and are stolen is not enough for them to investigate or remove the items, ebay remove listings and suspend accounts for a lot less. They also have the crime reference number which would confirm if they asked that the serial numbers matched.