This post is about “Doing the Right Thing” and I am curious about what you think is the “right thing”.
Please keep this dialog respectful. Be truthful, not a flame thrower.

About a week ago there was a post regarding a “stolen jet”.

See: http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_57..._1/key_/tm.htm. Or search under “Stolen Jet” or member “Clouseau” or member “½ time show”.

This post was in regards to a Skymaster F-4 jet that was for sale on the RCU classified page. The post was questioning the legitimate ownership of this jet but unfortunately deteriorated into flaming the seller’s poor spelling and grammar rather than the ownership of the jet. There were some misunderstandings and other points that need to be clarified. Some people did not like the word “stolen” since the F-4 jet had been delivered by mistake and not physically taken from someone. So if it was not “stolen” I would like to ask was it the “right thing to do” to keep the F-4 jet?

Now to recap and clarify this story: Bob Moore had ordered and paid for a Skymaster F-18 jet which was to be delivered to him by DHL freight. A few days before the F-18 was delivered a Skymaster F-4 jet was dropped off on Mr. Moore’s porch by mistake. Clarification: The shipping tags on both planes were addressed to Bob Moore at his correct address. The shipment of the F-4 was a mistake made by the shipper in Taiwan. Skymaster models apparently had some accounting errors and shipped the F-4 jet to Bob in Kansas when it should have been shipped to a customer in Florida. It is possible that Skymaster mistakenly labeled the F-4 boxes with Mr. Moore’s name and address since he was a current Skymaster customer.

DHL freight delivered the F-4 jet boxes to the addressee’s porch and left them without a signature. Some days later DHL returned to Mr. Moore’s home and requested that the boxes be returned. He told the DHL driver that he did not have the boxes. His statement to DHL is not true. Bob Moore has been seen and heard bragging about the “gift” at local flying fields and hobby shops. There are even pictures of Bob and the jet on the Internet!

Doing the Right Thing Question: Being a customer of Skymaster and knowing that the delivery of the F-4 jet was in error, does Mr. Moore have the right to lie to the DHL driver and keep the jet or should he had contacted Skymaster? Even now after he has flown the F-4 should Bob Moore return the jet to Skymaster?

After the first posting regarding the F-4 jet an email was forwarded to me from one of Mr. Moore former “friends”:

**** Start of email quotation *****

I've known Bob Moore since about 1992 and up until about a year ago I considered him a friend. In 2002 while stationed at Ellsworth AFB in South Dakota I sent Bob a Top Flight Stinson SR-9 kit, 10 Hitec servos, a Stans Fiber tech glass kit for the Stinson, a cockpit kit and a Saito 1.80. The deal was he would frame up the plane to pay me back for the 350 dollar Century Jet retracts and struts I "gave" him. I told him no big deal on the time line and just let me know when to pick it up. In 2004 I got the Saito back from him because I needed it. In 2006 after several attempts to get in touch with him failed I simply stopped in on him on my way back from the AMA Nats. Needless to say all of my stuff was gone. All I got was some lame excuse...none of my stuff. Two weeks later my friend John Balcom finds the kit with the fiber glass. Some poor guy in Wichita bought it for $150.00 from Bob. The man was honorable and agreed to split the cost with me so for $75.00 I got the kit and glass back. The gear, struts, servos and cockpit kit were of course gone.

I do not consider Bob Moore a friend any more and urge anyone contemplating any kind of an RC business transaction with him to run away as fast as they can.

Greg Thomas
Las Vegas, NV

**** End of email quotation *****

In closing, please post your own experiences regarding “Doing the Right Thing” and please don’t “flame” just to “flame”, just be truthful.

We need to police our hobby! Nobody else will!