26 August 2011

Police haul in $200,000 coin cache

26 August 2011 | By johnboy

ACT Policing’s Crime Targeting Team has recovered approximately $200,000 worth of rare coins from a search warrant earlier today (Friday, August 26).

In February this year the owner of the rare coin collection, including rare coins from America, put the coins in his car to take them to be valued. On returning home the man forgot the coins and left them in his locked car. The next morning the man found his car broken in to and his coin collection stolen.

About 10 am this morning, members from the Crime Targeting Team executed a search warrant at an address in Melba.

Members from Specialist Response and Security (Bomb Response Team) attended the location with a metal detector and located the coins in the backyard of the home.

Police have identified one man as a suspect and enquiries are continuing into the investigation.

The owner of the coins is said to be “delighted” that his rare collection of coins have been found.

[Courtesy ACT Policing]

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Chop714:25 pm 26 Aug 11

No coin dealer would be that stupid to have the loot in his/her own backyard. If they know how much the coins are worth they would have moved them well before being caught

Stevian3:37 pm 26 Aug 11

nexus6 said :

it would be very interesting to know the details.

most probably someone saw the guy put stuff in his car, decided to nick it, realised he had no idea what it was worth and in trying to find a buyer somehow it got back to the police.

This is just a guess. Assuming it was an opportunistic theft, the thief had to fence the stuff somehow, he probably went to a coin dealer to have them appraised if not to try to sell them. Collecting communities tend to be fairy close knit, so a lot of coins coming onto the market would attract attention, in addition the theft was probably known about among dealers. If it was not a crime of opportunity the thief would have known better how to cover his tracks

nexus63:27 pm 26 Aug 11

it would be very interesting to know the details.

most probably someone saw the guy put stuff in his car, decided to nick it, realised he had no idea what it was worth and in trying to find a buyer somehow it got back to the police.

p13:19 pm 26 Aug 11

Inside job from the coin valuing place?

Or opportunistic thief who just happened to break into a car with $200k worth of coins in it?

I ask because the cops obviously knew where to look, so they were working from something. Did the guy brag? Was he selling them on ebay? What? (I am purely curious, I have no expectation that the cops release this info, I just want to know damn it!).