Another dealer has home broken into and robbed while out to eat.

lkenefic

Wow, maybe the ATM thieves in Baltimore have graduated and moved west... or, just run out of easy ATMs to steal. This was "a thing" for a while in the city and surrounding burbs. I'm not suggesting it's the same crew, but it does take a small group to adequately observe a potential target's movements to find vulnerabilities to exploit.

As for using a scaled down airtag or placing one inside of a coin or metal bar... doesn't that affect the range of the signal? It was some time ago, and they've probably gotten a lot better since, but I was looking at using RFID chips to track movements of samples within a lab... it would work with a local RFID sensor... but not so much when the sample was placed in another container... such as a refrigerator or a safe.

MICHAELDIXON

(I posted this Saturday) At the Hagerstown, MD show today (Saturday, 24 February 2024) Security identified a suspicious vehicle at the show. Later, one of the dealers observed the car, a white Honda with Maryland license plates following them in Cumberland, MD which is a distance of 55-60 miles. The dealer pulled into the Cumberland Police Department and reported the vehicle following him. The police department pulled the suspicious car over and ID'd the vehicle and persons. They could not be charged with anything as all they had was the dealer's word his car was following him. If Cumberland PD will release the names of the persons, and the license plate number, our security team will have it next week.
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Security at the show scanned all the departing vendor's vehicles for trackers and informed them to be aware of the suspicious vehicle. This warning from security was the reason the dealer was alerted to being followed.

Goldbully

That's almost a 90 minute drive.

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telephoto1

NCIC just sent us another email... yet another dealer followed home and coins taken from his car in his driveway (I started a separate thread about this). I'm thinking coordinated effort by a group of thieves here.

jesbroken

@MICHAELDIXON said:
(I posted this Saturday) At the Hagerstown, MD show today (Saturday, 24 February 2024) Security identified a suspicious vehicle at the show. Later, one of the dealers observed the car, a white Honda with Maryland license plates following them in Cumberland, MD which is a distance of 55-60 miles. The dealer pulled into the Cumberland Police Department and reported the vehicle following him. The police department pulled the suspicious car over and ID'd the vehicle and persons. They could not be charged with anything as all they had was the dealer's word his car was following him. If Cumberland PD will release the names of the persons, and the license plate number, our security team will have it next week.
.
Security at the show scanned all the departing vendor's vehicles for trackers and informed them to be aware of the suspicious vehicle. This warning from security was the reason the dealer was alerted to being followed.

Great post Michael. Thanks for the information. Sounds at least Hagerstown Coin Show has its stuff together. I would wish the scanning of dealers was a normal event at all coin shows. Even large buyers could perhaps be scanned.
Thanks,
Jim

GoldFinger1969

Every coin show should be distributing Safety handouts telling dealers what to do and not do during and after a show.

MICHAELDIXON

Unfortunately, some of the one day, smaller shows do not invest in security. While talking with a dealer who has been doing shows for 45 years, he brought it to my attention that the one day shows are easier for the dealers to be followed and robbed, because the schedule is set in stone. He said: "I stopped doing one day shows years ago. The one day shows have the set hours and all the dealers are leaving at the same time. At least at 2 or 3 day shows, I can leave earlier and don't feel like I'm being watched." I try to send any, and all, security information to the show promoters and dealers in the Maryland, VA and PA area. Whenever one dealer is robbed, it hurts the entire numismatic community.

bsshog40

In case anyone with a newer Android ph is interested, I got curious about tracker alerts on my ph. It is there on my Samsung S22 Ultra.
Go to "Settings", "Apps", "Google Play Services", "All Services", "Safety and Emergency ", Unknown Tracker Alerts". Once you are there, here are your options.

Tom147

Not a dealer, or even a high dollar collector, so not a high value target. I do attend one or two shows a year and stop at three or four B & M's a year. My concern is returning from either. Yes, I am vigilant. Yes I am armed and will not go down peacefully. On the home front, Yes I have a heavy safe, ( 710 lbs empty. Way more than double that now ) bolted to the floor. Cameras inside & out. No alarms though. As I'm not tech savvy on these " air tags " I must study up on these. I appreciate the thoughts and tips brought up on this post. Thank you all.

jesbroken

@bsshog40 Thanks, Bobby. I have the S22+ and I followed your instructions and sure enough there it was and it was on. It said last checked at 11:40 AM today. Wow, did not know I had it or that it was on. I guess that means I was never near a tracking device as I have never received notice that I was. Cool.
Jim

MICHAELDIXON

This is a Youtube on finding and disabeling an airtag with your iphone.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=mGh7-IuPRR4
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Youtube video on finding and disabeling a tracking device using your Android
https://youtube.com/watch?v=XxANDZwITRA

air4mdc

@Tom147 said:
Not a dealer, or even a high dollar collector, so not a high value target. I do attend one or two shows a year and stop at three or four B & M's a year. My concern is returning from either. Yes, I am vigilant. Yes I am armed and will not go down peacefully. On the home front, Yes I have a heavy safe, ( 710 lbs empty. Way more than double that now ) bolted to the floor. Cameras inside & out. No alarms though. As I'm not tech savvy on these " air tags " I must study up on these. I appreciate the thoughts and tips brought up on this post. Thank you all.

You should really think about an alarm system. This would lessen the amount of time a perp(s) would have in your home, ransacking or causing bodily harm to loved ones.

Tom147

I have considered it. Small town of about 300 residents. We have very good neighbors within sight of the house. We tend to keep an eye out for each other. More than once firearms have been brandished when strangers happen through. For some reason that doesn't happen very much anymore. LMAO !!! Seriously, we are checking into ADT as well as a local company.

knovak1976

@jesbroken

Two things regarding cameras: 1) everyone I know buys junk cameras that you cannot id anyone in court.
2) they put the cameras in the eaves or elsewhere up high. Most thieves wear caps with hoodies to prevent their face being seen. I placed my cameras in the lower walls pointing 45° upward.
I was an EWR on F4's and EB66's. Trained on B52's for 14 months and they showed me an F4 and bam I was an F4 specialist and spent 3 years in Germany. lol
Jim

Nice! We may have crossed paths somewhere along the line! We were at Kadena in the late 60’s when I was 12 years old and the guy across the street from us was an EB-66 pilot. I was also stationed at Sembach, Germany, and was a pilot on the CH-53 from ‘81-85! Got a few older Deutsche marks for my collection there! 😉

Pizzaman

@telephoto1 said:
NCIC just sent us another email... yet another dealer followed home and coins taken from his car in his driveway (I started a separate thread about this). I'm thinking coordinated effort by a group of thieves here.

Occupational hazard these days. I know two who were close calls. One was followed from the show and he was able to lose him.