Several popular television shows are all about stupid criminals. In this age of countless security cameras, there’s plenty of material. Without exception they make you say, “Seriously? What were they thinking?’
One incident that didn’t make it to TV happened to a close friend. He was playing golf with buddies at a course not far from the inner city when a young man from a nearby neighborhood came flying across the tee box driving the golf ball retriever cart – the kind with a cage around the cab and huge wing-racks on either side that collect balls from the driving range. The golfers jumped out of the way....
Moments later, two other carts arrived carrying the golf pro and others from the golf shop. They asked if the group had seen the retriever cart. The golfers replied it was heading toward the club entrance. The carts took off in pursuit.
The young man had clearly stolen the ball retriever cart and was heading to pawn shops on a busy street to try and sell it. So, who in the world was going to buy it and what was he going to say? “Sure, it’s my cart. What’ll ya give me for it?”
A good thing about legitimate collectibles is that all are readily identifiable if stolen. I’m not talking about fads or tchotchkes such as Beanie Babies or Precious Moments figurines. Rather, rare stamps, coins and currency. Like a fingerprint, rarities are distinctive. Every stamp has centering or perforations exclusive only to it. Coins may all seem similar but each has tiny marks or striations unlike any other. Paper currency, of course, has serial numbers. Stupid criminals forget such things.
An incident involving stolen rare stamps happened to me some time ago. I had mailed $16,000 worth of collectible stamps to a dealer in Stamford, CT. He had sent them to me on approval. The post office wouldn’t send the envelope containing the stamps via Registered Mail so I mailed it Certified with a return receipt. A week later, I got back the return receipt. It hadn’t been signed by the dealer. Uh-oh.
The dealer soon phoned saying he hadn’t received the stamps. I called the post office. They said, even though it was sent Certified, they couldn’t track it. I was out of luck. I then phoned the Postal Inspectors office. They were even more brusque. To paraphrase, “You were foolish to send it Certified. It’s long gone. You won’t see it again.” Thanks for nothing.
Knowing I would owe the $16,000, I panicked. Then, I got a call from the same dealer to whom I had sent the stamps. He said he had stamps I would be interested in. I told him to forget it. He then explained they were the missing/stolen stamps. Someone was trying to sell them to him.
Knowing the Postal Inspectors had no interest I phoned the FBI. They helped set up a sting with the dealer. The big day came. When the crooks arrived to sell the stolen stamps, they were busted. The dealer had photos identifying the stamps. I was saved $16,000. The bad guys went to jail. Turns out, the thief worked at the Stamford post office and had been stealing packages for years. Those too had been reported. Postal Inspectors couldn’t put two and two together to spot that?
Similarly, a man installing a burglar alarm at the home of a prominent coin collector ended up stealing $30,000 of the numismatic rarities. He got away. That is, until he tried to pay for a safe deposit box at a nearby bank with a rare and stolen $50 California Territorial gold coin. Justifiably suspicious, the bank presented the coin to a local dealer who recognized it. The thief was caught and many of the coins returned. (Sadly, the crook dumped some in a river.)
Finally, a man was just arrested for helping steal a pair of the ruby slippers worn in the film the Wizard of Oz. The shoes were stolen years ago from the Judy Garland Museum in Minnesota. Here again, the FBI recovered them in a sting operation. Valued at over three million dollars, what in the world was the point? The shoes are rare and valuable, but worthless. They can’t be sold, traded, worn or displayed. Now, they’re back home. As Dorothy avowed in the film, “There’s no place like home.” As for crooks trying to steal and sell identifiable collectibles, there’s no place like jail.
For more collecting information and advice, log on to: http://prexford.com/.