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Twins face charges in air bag theft

A store employee says he recognized the stolen parts on eBay, bought them back and identified one of the suspects.

By YUXING ZHENG
Published September 28, 2005

LARGO - Twin brothers. Two stolen air bags. One crime.

Sheriff's detectives think the brothers stole the air bags from Starkey Road Auto Parts, 11900 Starkey Road in Largo, sometime in August before selling them on the online auction house eBay for $1,100, said Sgt. Jim Bordner.

Andrew and Stuart Moore, 27, were both charged with dealing in stolen property by use of the Internet, a third-degree felony. Detectives arrested Andrew Moore on Sept. 15 at the twins' home in Seminole. Stuart Moore surrendered at the Pinellas County Jail on Sept. 20.

The arrests came after the two sold the air bags to an employee of the store who suspected they were the missing parts, Bordner said. Law officers matched the serial number on the air bags with a 2005 Chrysler PT Cruiser belonging to the store.

Store employees discovered the theft in early September when they went to pull the parts for a customer, Bordner said. Store co-owner Richard Greenberg said employees discovered then that air bags were missing from at least two vehicles.

Greenberg asked his brother, who also owns the store, to look online to see if the parts were listed.

"We noticed they were gone out of two different cars and what are you going to do with the air bags?" Greenberg said. "It's a small town, everybody knows everybody, so I told him to look on eBay."

His brother discovered the air bags listed under the seller name 00SILVERNSX.

Manager Ronald Elliott said he purchased the air bags in person from one of the twins in Bradenton. He recognized the man, he said, because the twins visit the store at least once a week for parts and are allowed into the salvage yard.

Employees usually retrieve parts for customers, but they allow regular customers to accompany employees into the salvage yard, Elliott said.

The number of air bag thefts had been common five years ago, Bordner said. But the prices of the parts have gone down in recent years, making them less desirable. The Sheriff's Office has seen only three reported air bag thefts this year, Bordner said.

Tuesday afternoon, eBay offered more than 2,500 air bags for sale, some fetching about $1,500.

Anyone who has made a similar purchase from either suspect is asked to contact Cpl. Michael Weaver at the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office at (727) 582-6200.

Yuxing Zheng can be reached at 727 445-4163 or at yzheng@sptimes.com

[Last modified September 28, 2005, 02:30:38]