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2 Men Pose As Utility Workers, Cut Hole In Roof Of Bellflower Coin Shop Closed By CV-19/Steal $200k
Goldbully
Posts: 16,872 ✭✭✭✭✭
Talk about your brazen thieves.
BELLFLOWER (CBSLA) — Two men dressed as utility workers broke into a Bellflower coin shop by cutting a hole in the roof.
The heist happened Wednesday at about 1:30 p.m. at the Great American Coin Company on Lakewood Boulevard. The shop had been closed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Sheriff’s deputies say the men posed as utility workers and cut a hole through the roof of the coin shop to get in. Over several days, they got into multiple safes, and got away with up to $200,000 in coins.
A neighbor recorded video of the men loading the merchandise into a white van and called the sheriff’s department, but the men got away before deputies arrived.
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Wow....
I wonder if their security system went off?
Young Numismatist/collector
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That just occurred to me. I hope PCGS has the greatest security money can buy.
I HATE thieves and thieving. These guys are very serious about their work. The scumbags.
Hope they get caught with the extra charges for doing this during the pandemic. Also hope it doesn’t hurt the shop too bad and they were insured.
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Career criminals. You don’t wake up one morning and do that. Probably have 5+ burglary convictions each.
Bungholes.
BHNC #248 … 108 and counting.
They will so get caught so quickly.... just sport for them.... back to prison they go, this won’t be the first time. This is their stimulus money.
Looks like a good enterprise. This sucks.
Someone is always thinking to take advantage of a crisis situation. Manipulators,price gougers,stock pilers, etc.
The person taking the video really got close and one of the perps looked right at the phone!
Call cops, take video later! But kudos to the person for doing something!
On top of that this was their opportunity to wear masks and NOT look suspicious but they didn't!!
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This sucks and I feel sorry for the owner.
But Bellflower isn’t exactly the greatest neighborhood in the world. There’s a lot to said about a SDB.
I hate seeing stories like this. It is hard enough running a coin shop under normal circumstances and even then something like this happens during these uncertain times.
This is really sad news. I've done quite a bit of work with GAC over the last few years and hope they can recover fully from this.
I wonder if these losers were part of the group of inmates released by the California Department of Corrections due to Covid-19?
FWIW. in our area we have had an increased problem with regard to vehicle break-ins in office parking lots where there are limited numbers of vehicles due to so many businesses being closed or working with limited staff. The partially empty parking areas are attractive targets due to limited activity. In addition burglars who would normally be breaking into homes have had to look elsewhere since everyone is staying home.
I hope they get good jail time. Kudos to the neighbor for taking a video
I wonder if the person taking the video recorded the vehicle license? Would seem like they should have...I hope we see a follow up soon with these punks apprehended....has to be fast before they dispose of the coins etc., though, since it as over several days, they likely fenced a bunch already....Cheers, RickO
You can't put your inventory in a safe deposit box
Horrible incident, hopefully they're apprehended soon. My area has experienced numerous car break ins and I live in a decent area, funny times, locked and loaded ready to roll in an instant!
Of course they are going to get caught. Its not like every coin dealer in the world keeps logs of what he has ? Post what was stolen so we can report if they go on sale! Dumb people picked the most identifiable things to steal unless they melt them. If they got pic of them and van license it wont be long till they're picking up soap for a friend?
crooks just like scammers and other con men will take advantage of a situation that favors them and well they have one and trust me they will try and sometimes have success in taking advantage of this virus issue
https://photos.app.goo.gl/a6kwqbXrBhxnawsk6
I wonder why the owner(s) weren't at the shop in some fashion regularly during the week?? having worked in a shop I can say that dealers never seem to get caught up with work and I have assumed that smaller B&M owners have been doing wholesale or some kind of retail. most employ only a few people. I assume these guys will be caught eventually and hopefully most of what was stolen can be recovered.
this reminds me of the rash of California Bank robberies from several years ago. in those cases, the crooks would cut a hole in the roof directly over the Safe-Deposit Boxes, where there were apparently no security camera/detectors, and they'd have hours/days to work.
There are countless generic coins which could easily be sold, without being melted and still not identified.
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
In these economic times we are probably going to see a lot more of this; the police will hopefully be stepping up to the plate to alert businesses and citizens of risks.
Professionals.
Something to think about! IMy store was broken in to in January 2017 by going through the roof at 3:30 AM (a small hole ,low on the roof line) The thief did not care if the alarm went off . If the Police arrive and check all the doors and windows, everything is secure and in the dark cannot see that hole just above the roof line. The police leave and record a false alarm. The thief goes in and out the hole with merchandise (never opening a door or window). Luckily he did not get into any of the safes With great Police work he was caught within 5 days. He had been doing the same type of break in for years. The Police now have new rules that if the alarm goes off they must wait for me to arrive and let 2 of them into the store to check inside.
THIS IS MY OPINION AND ONLY MY OPINION.
These were not crackheads pulling a smash and grab. Their only mistake is getting photographed. That is the most likely reason they would get caught.
Most coin stores do not have unique, easy to identify coins. Unless they try to sell the slabs which have serial numbers, it is very hard to identify individual raw coins even if sold as collectibles.
True story - THIS IS A FACT, NOT SIMPLY AN OPINION
I bought a large group of stolen SLABBED Franklin Half dollars and raw silver rounds. [I led with that just to upset and entice you.] I bought them from a dealer who bought them in good faith.
In NY State dealers have to post photographs of all purchases and hold them for 3 to 14 days depending on the county. The dealer I bought them from did just that.
Well, sometime after the 10 days expired, the person who had been robbed came forward. The police identified the lot and arrested 3 people. I brought the coins back to the dealer. The person who had been robbed was given back about 10 slabbed coins. I was then called again to purchase the rest of the lot from the dealer.
Now, I know what you're saying - WTF! I felt the same way. But here's the thing: the victim could only prove ownership of the 10 slabbed coins that he had records of purchasing. He could not prove ownership of the raw coins and he couldn't prove ownership of the majority of the slab coins as he had no records of the registration numbers. So, despite the fact that 3 people were arrested and they had sold these all as one giant lot, most of the coins came back to me not the original victim.
BACK TO OPINION
99.999% of coins are so generic that they are virtually untraceable if separated from their slabs. And, it turns out, even in the slabs you better have good evidence of ownership.
I'm sure there will be a lot of these types of robberies/breakins with mandatory closures in place. There was one in my state where some loser broke into a restaurant and ate/drank/stole thousands in inventory.
https://www.courant.com/coronavirus/hc-news-coronavirus-new-haven-man-slept-stole-from-closed-restaurant-20200416-6htsb4nsrbb4thbmctunwsg4dm-story.html
I thought all of us logged what we bought when and saved invoices like I do. I am only a buyer not seller. I do this mainly because maybe mental disorder that makes me keep a dairy too lol. Maybe I am weird and alone in this but I had the opinion that most of the collectors I meet do? I keep two separate software that log weight in Oz's/date/product/spot price (updatable for spot prices daily) and price payed/product/invoice. One for My main reason is when I die I wont be around to tell my kid what's what and how much they are worth. I do try and educate her but she's 11 and attention span goes only so far.lol
As has been stated, even with records of the type you save, for a great many coins, that’s not enough to prove anything meaningful.
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
As long as we are speculating, why did the owners leave the inventory in the closed store?
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Then how is it that Julian Leidman got around 100% of what was stolen from him leaving Coinfest back? Also one of the main mods. at Coin Talk talked about turning up the heat to the nth degree on stuff that he got robbed of and got the whole swag back. You may have to think like the criminals to get your loot back!
My guess is that most or all of Julian’s coins were still in their holders, as opposed to cracked out of them. And that they weren’t generic items.
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
Maybe because it was safer there than under their mattresses at home....especially if they carried insurance on the coins, which would likely only be in effect at the business location or during travel to and from coin shows.
OMG, terrible !!!
WAG:
They had safes. They probably also had an alarm system. What they didn't (probably) have was motion detectors which is why going through the roof worked.
Strange if they didn't have a motion detector. We had one in the coin shop I worked in back in the mid to late 70's so that is old technology. Of course our alarm didn't call the police it just rang a really loud bell. Perhaps they disabled the bell or cut the phone lines (but then most alarm systems have a cell phone call out system.
In my time at the shop, we had a lot of inventory and even though we had a couple of really large safes, we couldn't get everything in to them at the end of the evening and most nights we stacked the trays in one corner of the display case out of sight from the outside. If you had several cases and a lot of trays that could add up to a whole lot of money in a hurry. Plus we had buckets of silver coins and silver waiting to go to the silver and gold buyers sitting on the floor. There was no way to get a bucket weighing 40 or 50 pounds in to the safe. Also we had a lot of jewelry that never went in to the safe.
I am not say that is what they did but it might be. I do know that someone smashed out our front window (we didn't have bars over them back then) and ran in and emptied a bunch of trays in laundry bags (they left one behind) and then back out the smashed window before anyone knew what had happened.
I feel bad for them. Even with insurance and even trying to remember everything that is in inventory is really hard to do.
I remember watching an episode of American Greed where some thieves did the same trick of getting into an LA art gallery via the roof. They used a jammer to disable the alarm system's ability to call out via cellular.
Most alarms these days(I think) send out an alert if phone service is disrupted...at least mine does.
Covid Crooks. Will they get caught? Will they get sick? How many coins did they get? If it was 200 K , how many gold coins would that be?
one good one.
Back in the 1970's I owned a hardware store in Castle Rock, Colorado. When I bought the store the previous owner (who lived across the street) advised I get a motion alarm. I did just that and all the neighbors got my home phone number. Got two calls from neighbors that the alarm woke them up. Arrived to find nothing disturbed except the locks on the back door were partially jimmied and that set off the alarms somehow (maybe trying to bust through the door as they couldn't get the lock opened?). The second event was a brick through a side window of the building. Again the alarm scared them off. I often wondered why someone would try to burglar a hardware store. The alarm was one heck of a loud screaming SOB.
Alarms come in all sorts and some really do work. Noise and strobe lights are the thief's worse nightmare.
bob
I've done business with these guys, this is terrible.
In these times, when life isn't that great, and put something like that on top of it......
It just isn't fair !
Hi Bob,
Sorry about your experiences with people trying to break in to your shop. If my memory is correct, in the late 60's and even through the mid to late 70's most hardware stores were also the go to stores for guns and ammo and often times camping equipment and hunting stuff. It is very possible that someone was trying to break in for access to your guns.
One of my local hardware places was my go to store for military surplus rifles (back when you could even order them through the mail from the back of gun magazines). I bought quite a few rifles for not very much money along with really inexpensive ammo, but they also stocked some more expensive pistols and ammo which would be prime fodder for a break in.
Not saying this was the cause but just something that bubbled up from the old swamp of my memory.
...a tiny adjustment that also makes sense
My store had a pharmacy. One night at 1am I get a call that a motion detector alarm had been tripped
I met the police at the store. Took a few minutes of looking but we soon found a new skylight in the pharmacy. They didn’t get anything
Just caused some damage. Glad I’m now retired!
Yes. Police are supposed to ask for a responder and if dispatch is able to coordinate with the alarm company and get an up to date phone number, they will call you and see if you can respond.
If you have a brick & mortar make sure your info and numbers are available so they can go in and make sure nothing is missing!
BHNC #248 … 108 and counting.
Yes, being in rural Colorado we did sell guns and ammo...most likely the targets. We sold several high powered deer and elk guns every year and lots of ammo and licenses...forgot all about those days! Oh my memory fades...Biden syndrome.
bob
Professionals for sure.
Professional low lifes.