The Princetown State Police last week located 260 computer hard drives in Gilboa that were supposed to be shipped to California.
State Police were contacted by officials from Advanced Electronics Distributors in Rancho Santa Margareta, California on Wednesday, who advised troopers that their order for 260 Seagate hard drives had been re-routed, at the last minute, to an address in Schoharie County.
The six boxes containing the hard drives for notebook computers was to be delivered to Applied Bio Systems in Fremont, California, but instead, were delivered to a location in Gilboa. The content was valued at $27,000. AED Electronics was to ship the remaining 140 hard drives the following day, police said.
On Friday, Troopers were able to identify the individual who had received the first shipment, went to the woman’s home, and located the 260 Seagate hard drives. The woman, who was not arrested, stated that she had met a man, who had gained her confidence, on the Internet, police said. He told the woman that she would be receiving packages, and that she was to re-ship them to an address he would provide on shipping labels via computer. Troopers located shipping labels for Kindonou, Contonou Benin, a country on the west coast of Africa.
The woman in Gilboa, who was not identified, is cooperating with State Police who are attempting to identify the individual who re-routed the hard drives from California to New York.