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By M.S. Enkoji -- Sacramento Bee

Call it a bitter cup of coffee.

After thieves recently made off with three shiny new espresso machines worth $13,000 each from a south Sacramento business, the rightful owner thought it was more than a coincidence that one popped up for sale on eBay.

So did the cops.

"This isn't the first time a victim has found their own stuff for sale," said Sacramento County Sheriff's Lt. Bob Lozito, who is operations commander of the area's Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force.

The information superhighway is the new fencing mecca for thieves, giving them an unsuspecting market at their fingertips, Lozito said Monday, "as opposed to selling out of a van on K Street."

But an eBay spokesman warns that the online auction house might be the worst choice for criminals gone high-tech.

"There are no dark alleys," said Hani Durzy, a spokesman for the San Jose company.

Working with eBay investigators, detectives raided a Sacramento residence Thursday and recovered the three espresso machines, and seized computers, illegal drugs, cash, a weapon and other stolen property, Lozito said.

Deanne Brasel, 36, was arrested on suspicion of possessing stolen property, methamphetamines for sale and counterfeit currency. Mark Perez, 36, was arrested on suspicion of possessing stolen property and methamphetamines for sale. Rick Trample, 44, was arrested for outstanding warrants.

The Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force, a conglomeration of federal, state and local investigators, worked with eBay to find the address of the sellers of the espresso machines and discovered one of them was on probation. That gave detectives the right to search the place.

At eBay, the online marketplace employs fraud investigators, most of them with law enforcement backgrounds, Durzy said.

They have a huge store to watch. The 95 million registered eBay users at any given time are selling 20 million items, everything from copies of the Quran to a human kidney - the kidney was quickly delisted.

But in spite of the volume, fraud amounts to a fraction of the transactions, Durzy said.

"There is an unprecedented level of openness and transparency to the operation," Durzy said of the transactions that racked up $23.8 billion worldwide in 2003.

A seller must register with a credit card and other identifying markers, he said.

Plus, theft victims are actually checking eBay for their stolen goods, Durzy said.

Lozito brings up another point: Online buyers are better off on eBay than dealing with sellers without a middleman. But there are schemes.

Some involve offering for sale a high-bid item, such as a new-model digital camera, and collecting payment even though the item doesn't exist, Lozito said. The seller also could contact all the bidders and claim the first bidder didn't work out and offer to sell for payment.

"They could sell this thing 15 or 16 times," Lozito said.

The best advice is the oldest: If an item for sale seems too good to be true, it probably is, he said.

Newer items just out in stores are not likely to be discounted too much, Lozito said.

"If you see a plasma TV for $500," he said, "you figure it isn't your lucky day today."

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