Three men came to pick up a load of 900 sneakers from StockX in Veldhoven in 2021. But it soon turned out that they had cheated and had taken the sports shoes worth 200,000 euros instead of UPS. To this day, the sneakers have not been found, but two men were on trial in the court in Den Bosch on Monday.
Steef N. (41) from Nieuwkuijk and Alex M. (35) from Den Bosch were allowed to come and explain how that went in 2021. But Alex M. did not show up. He is a semi-famous Dutchman through his participation in the Temptation Island program. That got the attention of the press, but that wasn’t the only reason Alex wasn’t there.
An attack on the front door of an apartment complex on the Maasboulevard in Den Bosch on June 15 turned out to be aimed at Alex M. Remarkably, ‘cancer thief’ had been spray-painted on the wall. The courtroom was told that this was not the only attack. In recent weeks, M.’s ‘close ones’ have also been affected by such violence.
Popular
But in court it was only about the missing mountain of sneakers. StockX is a platform where very popular items are sold that are no longer available anywhere else, such as unique sneakers. A DHL truck and two UPS trucks come by every day to collect goods that have to be delivered to customers at De Run in Veldhoven.
However, on October 1, 2021, a truck with a trailer from a transport company from Waalwijk arrived. But because they had the correct papers, the twelve pallets of sneakers were loaded without any problems. And in that truck were Steef N. and Alex M.
‘A strange feeling’
That is certain, both admitted, but from there the confusion begins. The people of the transport company from Waalwijk, the occupants of the truck and the employees of StockX know nothing about scams and that is of course strange, because two tons worth of sneakers have disappeared. Alex and Steef had a ‘weird feeling’ after picking up the load, it became clear. They were going to ‘move a woman from Oss’, but suddenly drove to Veldhoven.
There, driver Steef N. signed the papers after loading and set sail for Den Bosch. There the men loaded the shoe boxes into a box truck. In the meantime, Steef had already informed the boss of the transport company from Waalwijk that ‘everything was wrong’ and that it could possibly be stolen items. She came to take a look, but she also did not intervene, the public prosecutor noted.
And so the officer’s conclusion was: no one supposedly knew anything, but no one intervened either, even though it was strange that there were shoe boxes on the pallets instead of typical moving items.
Mastermind
According to the judiciary, Alex M. is the mastermind behind the scam. He arranged a truck for an acquaintance with an excuse and showed the way. Steef N. was not involved in devising the plan, but he should have seen that everything was wrong. And so he is partly to blame, according to the justice system. It was striking that there was insufficient evidence against two StockX employees. Justice suspects that the fraud could only have happened with help from within and with people who knew the procedure, but cannot prove this.
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According to Alex M.’s lawyer, there is no evidence that he was involved in making the plan. He wanted to help a woman in need move and the only thing you can blame him for is that he missed some signals, she explained.
Steef N.’s lawyer was surprised that he is being prosecuted for complicity in fraud. He was simply asked to do a job as a driver for a good acquaintance. He knew nothing, according to the lawyer, and argued that the man should be acquitted because he had simply been abused.
But the public prosecutor thought very differently about that. Two men who managed to get two tons of sports shoes with false papers, that’s not right. They took the items under false pretenses and also transferred them in Den Bosch, so they are involved.
Compensation
Because it has been four years since the men were arrested and held in custody for a few days, the officer did not think the men need to go to jail. Against Alex M. he demanded 160 hours of community service and a month of probation. Steef N. heard demands for 120 hours of community service, of which 40 hours were conditional.
But the most severe punishment may be the damages that StockX is demanding. The company would like to see the 203,195 euros worth of damage reimbursed and also the 8,000 euros costs for a detective agency. Alex M. and Steef N. must then repay this if the court grants this claim.
The verdict in this case is on July 6.
Here you can read all the stories from Omroep Brabant about crime and criminality.
