Grand theft carrier

If you keep your eyes open in w-space, you can sometimes spot the telltale signs of the presence of other pilots, often long gone. Some containers there, a mobile depot there, the flight of drones left floating in space during a mad dash for the exit. Most of the items floating are garbage, but occasionally, if you're vigilant and lucky, you will find something worth taking.

On this particular day I was scouting a C5 where we had discovered a highsec entrance, which was serendipitous as there were several new pilots who needed to enter the wormhole. I covered with a falcon as they brought in their ships and possessions, all neatly packed, like Boy Scouts going on a campout. In the middle of the convoy, a wild Colonel Smash appeared in local, and at the exact same time a thanatos appeared on dscan.

Colonel Smash: hey I'm selling these carriers, good price

This is my thanny. There are
many like it, but this one was mine.
Kind of

Obvious trap is obvious, I thought. It was an odd choice of bait, however, especially because Smash's corp did not match the towers in this system. I hustled the remaining crew into the wormhole and began looking for the pilot. Sure enough, there was soon a corpse on dscan - Smash's corpse. I quickly scanned down the thanatos and, lo and behold, it was unpiloted. I logged on a carrier alt and instructed the crew to get into position for coverage. We grabbed the thanatos and got away, and that's when we discovered 2 archons on dscan as well, at a different planet. They were also unpiloted. Sadly I didn't have an archon pilot available, and asked in alliance chat for an assist. Some Taggarts dashed over as quickly as they could, but just a few minutes too late - the Lead Farmers had found their way into the WH and were also making a grab for the archons. Vastly outnumbered, I ordered the crew to stand down. We then managed to find a null and cyno the thanny out of there.

I cannot say the events that led to Smash entering the C5, but as he did not live there, it seems more likely that he had trapped himself without a scout. Whatever happened, CCP soon confiscated the thanny, as Smash had apparently filed a petition that he had been hacked. I find it more likely that he derped EVE and then cried about it via petition, but who knows. At least my crew had some fun that night.