The Ebay Burglar

Vienna, 2008. A burglar enters an empty first-floor apartment. Lifts a laptop, a camera, stereo equipment, watches, and — for reasons the court papers do not fully explain — the bedroom curtains. Walks out. Closes the window behind him. By any conventional measure, a clean job. Within forty-eight hours, he has listed everything for sale on eBay. From his own verified account. Linked to his own real name. His own home address. His own bank details. He has photographed the items in his own kitchen. Hanging in the kitchen window, behind the laptop in the listing photo: the curtains. The same curtains. From the same apartment. Now in his apartment. The owner of the burgled flat — searching online for her own things, as the modern victim does — recognises the laptop's serial number, then recognises her own curtains in the background, then phones the Bundespolizei. Kit and Eden on what happens when a thief discovers an online marketplace and forgets that an online marketplace can also be searched by his victims.