Must see video...Burglars enter San Antonio coin shop through roof, cut 5" thick safe and steal $50k
Goldbully
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This is such a sad story and it seems to happen way too often.
Coin shop owner Larry Harmon(72) is devastated.
Heist nets burglars $50,000 in coins from 72-year-old SA man's store
A Leon Valley coin shop was robbed of $50,000-worth of coins after burglars pulled off an intricate heist to steal the loot.
Author: Priya Sridhar
Published: 5:40 PM CDT March 23, 2018
Updated: 6:56 PM CDT March 23, 2018
Burglars made a hole in the roof of a Leon Valley coin shop in the middle of the night, climbed into the store, disabled the alarm system, and then used a power tool to break through a five-inch thick safe made of steel and concrete, all to get away with $50,000 worth of rare coins and currency.
Larry Harmon, 72, owns the coin store and has been building his coin collection since he was 12 years old.
"I've done it all my life,” he said. “It's very interesting.”
The burglars spent almost four hours breaking into Harmon's safe. Surveillance cameras in the front of the store were able to capture video of the suspects checking the front door and looking around near the cash register.
"The items they did take all had value. They handled but left behind many items that had very little value or not so much value, so they primarily knew what they were looking for," Harmon said.
Almost two years ago, Harmon's store was broken into through a neighboring unit. In that event, the intruders made a hole in the bathroom wall but didn't take anything. Harmon suspects the burglars from the recent March 12 incident were the same as the ones who broke in a few years ago because they used the bathroom hole to escape.
Harmon says, more than the money, many of the stolen items had a special place in his heart.
"It's not just the value of the item, it's the fact that I've had them so long, and every time I look at them I enjoy them and it brings back a memory," he said.
The owners of Gabriel's Liquor store across the street from the Texas Coins and Precious Metals store on the 6800 block of Bandera road say that they were broken into in a very similar way on March 22 and $2500 worth of items were stolen.
Harmon is offering a $5000 reward for any information that leads to an arrest and conviction in this case. That is in addition to the Crime Stoppers reward of $5000. If you have any information regarding this case you can call Crime Stoppers at 210-224-STOP (7867).
© 2018 KENS
Comments
Hope they catch the bastards.
Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value. Zero. Voltaire. Ebay coinbowlllc
Wow I've bought and sold from Larry multiple times back in my Texas days, Hope they catch the thieves. Sounds like an inside job or at least someone who was very familiar with his shop.
The whole worlds off its rocker, buy Gold™.
Hopefully law enforcement nails the thief/thieves soon and makes an example of whoever is responsible.
So sad. The guy works his whole life to build something ... and then some worthless punks with a few power tools decide it's theirs. Wow. How do these people sleep at night? They must be dead inside.
Hope they catch these losers.
Dave
Cut off their hands and hang them by their feet in town square.
I bought a handful of law value coins there when I visited my in-laws a few years back. What a terrible thing to happen to a great guy.
Terrible.
I see him off and on at the local shows, a very decent guy. Truly a terrible thing that happened and I'm suspecting that it was done by people that have been scoping out the shop/building for a bit. No one just jumps into drilling into a building and a safe on a whim.
Hope those bastards are caught too.
10-4,
My Instagram picturesErik
My registry sets
My shop was ENTERED through the roof one night.
However, contrary to the usual practice of "barring" the rear door to prevent entry from outside, I just attached a chain that would ALLOW opening the door.....just enough... to trip the alarm. But not allow exit.
Whoops.
Anyhow, the ...intended... thief didn't realize that our inventory went into the safe every night.
In his disappointment... maybe... he got so confused that he left his jacket in the shop.
WITH his driver's license in it.
Cool.
Any insurance ?
Nope.
Man that’s tough. Almost seems better to put nothing in the safe and stick the coins in an old shoe in the closet.
Is it really that easy to bust into a safe?? Dang.
I agree, but they were onsite for 4 hours.....that's a very long time for a burglary.
HOW can a coin shop have a security service with a FOUR HOUR wait for dispatch?
This smells funny.
The technology reliable alarm companies have now is quite secure.
They were able to be onsite for 4 hours because they disabled the security system.
Don't ask me how you disable a security system.
In the article it says they disabled the alarm, makes me wonder if they somehow knew the proper code to do so.
Yikes !!!
Such a shame.... this was obviously a well planned heist... I am really surprised they did not disable the cameras and take the recording device. Well, crooks are mostly not very bright...That being said, they knew enough about the safe to know they could cut into it.... this is someone he knows and that knew that shop very well.... I have to believe they will be quickly apprehended....so much evidence... sure hope we see a positive outcome soon. Cheers, RickO
A good alarm will either be wireless or the phone box will be innocuously bugged, too.
Had to know the code or it was a user installed alarm.
Then too, maybe this is a call to only stock dreck.
Back in olden times when I opened my first shop, they installed an alarm that CONTINUALLY broadcast a signal to the monitoring system. It CHANGED the frequency at random times from 15 seconds to about 12 or so minutes. If the station got a mixed or missing signal in that time, here came the cops.
I ...REALLY.... felt safe with that one. Doubt it's still even done.
Sadly, it truly is the memories that you can't put a price tag on.
@Goldbully said:
It depends. If it's an old phone line system you can use scotch locks and a scrap of twisted pair wire to bypass the unit completely. So long as a dial tone is active and it's not interrupted for more than a quick second you're good. It's how we are able to do repairs on them without the police showing up. Fire alarms will trip regardless. Usually why it's good to have both tied into the same unit if possible.
The best system would be an Internet connection with a thumb print scanner to disable. Otherwise if you crack the unit super fast and strip the wire and make no mistakes you should be fine in 3 seconds.
What was ...kinda.... funny was that when the police arrived for the roof entry, when I got on site they were pacing about in front of the store.
Until...... I informed the head officer that there was a LOADED M1 carbine in the office.
The cops got behind the walls BETWEEN the windows...... mucho quick.
I've known Larry for years and often see him at the local shows here in Texas. He's a really good guy and I'm so sorry to see this happen to him (or anyone for that matter). Looks like some Texas justice was needed here!
I sold my first big variety cherrypick to Larry- he's a good guy. I'm sad this happened.
I hope they catch them soon.
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Any Alarm system that is disabled during closed hours. Should send a signal or alarm message to the owner. It is that simple. I feel bad for this guys and think this is something I will need to consider sometime. But as of now I have no coins and have only guns at my residences
Best place to buy !
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Looks like they found the guys.....
Stolen goods, suspect found in Texas Coins break-in
https://www.ksat.com/news/stolen-goods-suspect-found-in-texas-coins-break-in
Successful buys on BST board from NotSure, Nankraut, Yorkshireman, Astrorat, Ikeigwin(2x), Bob13, Outhaul, coinbuf, dpvilla, jayPem, Sean1990, TwoKopeiki, bidask, Downtown1974, drddm, nederveit2
Great news......thanks for your post.
I'm assuming the circular cutter was a burglary tool that got left behind? If so, who's putting their fingerprints all over it?
It's hard to think straight when something like that happens but everyone please remember, if heaven forbid this happens to you, do not touch anything!
Great transactions with oih82w8, JasonGaming, Moose1913.
I would sue that alarm company so fast!!!
They should get a fair trial, then hang. It is Texas.
The tool is what's called an angle grinder. About $100. With the proper blade, about $20, the bad guy could have been in the safe in less than an hour. With a better tool, I could do it in about 30 minutes. It's easy to cut a hole in the side of a safe.
You have to have an alarm system that won't give the bad guys more than a few minutes.
It's cool they caught these guys.
What's with that 3 piece proof set being touted at 450.00 in that story ?
Very easy to cut through steel & concrete with the right tools. All a safe does is slow them down a bit. Layers of security are needed. I’m glad they caught these losers.
Happy to see your getting your stuff back Larry.
Great news that they caught the thieves...and recovered most of the valuables.... So many cases do not end as good as this one. Cheers, RickO
What the heck. GET INSURANCE PEOPLE, it IS cheap and gives you peace of mind.
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/comment/11673893#Comment_11673893
This exact M.O. happened about
5 years ago to a dealer in L.A.
for PCGS. A 49+-Year PNG Member...A full numismatist since 1972, retired in 2022