When I wrote for a newspaper, I talked with a man who was (or at least claimed to have been) a "professional thief." In other words, he said, stealing--jewels, mainly-- was his metier. And, as such, he and others like him had a set of guidelines--a code of professional conduct, if you will. They included such gems as "Never kill unless there is no other alternative" and "Never steal from anyone poorer than yourself."
One thing that separates professionals, like the one he claimed to be, and others is that he stole strictly to "get paid," he said. "You steal, you sell, you spend," he explained, unlike amateurs who might, say, steal out of poverty and desperation or to support a drug habit.
By implication, that meant "you shouldn't steal to support your stealing" and "you shouldn't use something stolen to steal." In other words, a professional thief never should do what two men in Oregon seem to have done.
A bicycle was stolen in Eugene, the state's capital. The victim found it for sale on Facebook Marketplace and arranged to meet the sellers at the Walmart in nearby Springfield. He apprised the cops of what he was doing.
Just before the gendarmes arrived, one of the sellers, who drove the car used to transport the bike, went into the store. The officers, seeing the bike in the back seat, took the passenger--35-year-old Guy Devault--into custody on a warrant. Shortly afterward, they caught the driver--Juan Sanchez, also 35 years old--in the store.
An investigation concluded that Devault was responsible for the stolen bike. But, as it turned out, the car was also stolen. So, in addition to his outstanding warrant on for kidnapping, Sanchez now also faces a charge of being in possession of a stolen vehicle: the car used to transport the bike.
The fellow I talked to when I was writing for a newspaper would have known better than that.
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