Street slang and things that fall off the back of a truck

[JakeSchuster aka Ostroff]

Anyone know the current term(s) for what used to be known as a "fence"?

[Kenn Hoekstra]

You have reason to believe they're not still called fences?

--Kenn

www.kennhoekstra.com (http://www.kennhoekstra.com)

[JakeSchuster aka Ostroff]

Kenn,
Yeah I'm sure they still are, but just as with marijuana there must be numerous alternative names.

[pantalone]

The answer should depend on your level of selling stolen goods. Fence is still used to indicate a place, a pawn-shop, or even a retail store, that deals in stolen goods. Finding a way to turn dirty money into clean money is still laundering. Illegal sports gambling is still book making.

But to find any street slang, you should really look in your particular city setting. When I lived on the East Coast, many of the guys who were selling fairly obviously stolen goods, often referred to it as overstock.

On the lowest level of thievery there is little organized fencing of stolen goods. Much of what gets stolen gets sold back on the streets, by thief or a partner. Often to friends and coworkers. The back of a van and word of mouth.

Better organized and more professional crooks are better at moving goods. A local guy was using the internet auction sites to sell stolen items. Besides pawn shops some, uh, urban retail outlets are fences. Its all about selling VCRs.

[JakeSchuster aka Ostroff]

That's how I (an East Coaster) saw it. Thanks for the feedback. Very interesting. "Overstock": I love it!