Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, December 3, 1994                   TAG: 9412050052
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NORFOLK                                 LENGTH: Medium

STOLEN TRAIN SETS TAKE ROUNDABOUT WAY HOME

He certainly didn't expect anyone to walk into his shop, Dale's Train Station in Norfolk, and try to sell two of the sets back to him.

Tony and Linda Ortega of Newport News had bought the sets at an Oct. 3 auction at the Peninsula Auction House in Hampton, not suspecting they were stolen. But then they took them to Stocks.

``I couldn't believe my eyes. There they were,'' Stocks said.

``They told us that everything we had purchased from the auction house had been stolen from his shop,'' Linda Ortega said. ``I could have gotten myself arrested because I was in possession of stolen property.''

Linda Ortega said she and her husband knew the trains were a bargain. For $880, they bought a complete U.S. Navy model train set, a special George Washington edition of a B&O locomotive and tender, and two other locomotive and tender sets.

The trains later were valued at $1,700.

After recognizing them as the ones stolen from his store, Stocks called a Norfolk detective, who came to the store while the Ortegas were there. The detective verified the trains were stolen and asked that the Ortegas return them.

Linda Ortega said her husband called the Peninsula Auction House and asked for a refund but was rejected.

Ron Simon, an employee at Peninsula Auction House, said the train set had been purchased at auction from a self-storage company. Simon was unable to provide the name of the business or the date the auction house acquired the model train sets.

``We buy from so many storage places that it is unbelievable,'' Simon said. He said if Peninsula Auction refunded the Ortegas' money, it would not be able to recoup that amount from the storage company.

There are local and state laws that require owners of businesses that buy and sell used goods to record the names and addresses of people who sell used property.

But Hampton police Lt. Ed Davis said there are not enough detectives to check every dealer regularly.

Although auction houses handle used property, most of it is sold on consignment, exempting the businesses from police scrutiny, Davis said.

``We make the best effort we can to monitor these places. If we get any complaints, we follow through and investigate them,'' Davis said.