Breaking News: Mass. Man Steals $40K In Coins From Littleton Coin Co.....story updated 8/11/17
Goldbully
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Caledonian Record
Wayne Nordstrom Accused Of Writing Bad Checks;Police Say Other Coin Dealers Also Victims
Robert Blechl
Lttleton, NH---A Massachusetts man with a love of old coins and bad checks allegedly wrote four bum checks to Littleton Coin Co. and absconded with tens of thousands of dollars in high-value coins he then pawned in Rhode Island.
Cannot report anymore at this point......must subscribe to get remaining content. It sounds as if this story is breaking, so I'm sure we will be hearing more soon. Please post if your learn anything.
Wayne Nordstrom
1
Comments
Some pretty hefty checks for the dealer to be accepting. Hope that they get the coins back.
40k face value? or 10k true market value?
Good to get the picture up right away. If anyone recognizes him from being scammed maybe the police can hold him before he makes bail.
Great transactions with oih82w8, JasonGaming, Moose1913.
What a loser
Most likely not. Rhode Island has virtually no laws governing pawn shops, the can dispose of the items as soon as they come in. When my coins were stolen, I got very little back, I got nothing back that went to Rhode Island.
Looking forward to the @bigzestee mugshot.
Maybe he thought they were "on approval"?
Link is behind a paywall, MOL.
I wouldn't suggest writing bad checks to anybody, but I'll bet Littleton knows how to respond rather forcefully. Choosing them as a target is dumb.
There seems to be no end to the scams/scammers out there....more than ever, one must be very wary in all transactions. Cheers, RickO
40k ? Thats a lot of gold plated state quarters !!!!!! Pawned in this instance is probably code for "turned them in for face value at a bank" .
When you steal from Littleton coins no one wins
Would like to know what percentage of Littleton price he got for this stuff
not much
BHNC #203
could be, maybe he didnt like the coins either and sent them the bad checks in return. just saying is all
Crazy! Hopefully he pays the time for the crime!
Here's the rest of the story.....................
LITTLETON — A Massachusetts man with a love of old coins and bad checks allegedly wrote four bum checks to Littleton Coin Co. and absconded with tens of thousands of dollars in high-value coins he then pawned in Rhode Island.
Wayne G. Nordstrom, 55, of Franklin, Mass, was arrested July 20 at the coin company and charged with eight Class A felony counts of theft (the additional four for having more than two prior convictions) that could land him more than a decade in N.H. State Prison.
On July 14, authorities said Nordstrom bought five Gold American Eagle coins valued at $9,075 by negotiating a check drawn on an account held at Dean Bank, in Franklin, Mass., that he knew to be closed as of May 19.
Another bad check of $9,075 for more coins allegedly followed on July 17, followed by a third check the next day for the purchase of three Gold Buffalo coins and two Carson City silver dollars valued at $9,905.
On July 20, police said Nordstrom issued a fourth check on the closed bank account in the amount of $9,490 for the purchase of five Gold Buffalo coins and one Carson City silver dollar.
According to the affidavit for arrest, Littleton police, on July 18, took a call from Todd Bogardus, chief security officer at Littleton Coin Co., who reported a customer who made three separate purchases from the company on three separate days and paid by check.
But after the third purchase, it was determined the checks were written from a closed bank account, Bogardus told police.
Littleton Police Capt. Chris Tyler and Littleton Police Det. Scott Powers investigated the purchases and soon identified the customer as Nordstrom.
After the July 14 visit in which he came to the coin company, Nordstrom allegedly called Littleton Coin to order more coins for July 17, when he purchased them with a check from the same account, said police.
He was told the company only had two Gold American Eagle coins in stock and he agreed to purchase them along with three Gold Buffalo coins, according to the police report.
Nordstrom, who had gained company profit shares through his previous two purchases and used those shares to buy the Carson City silver dollars with a retail value of $830, returned to the coin company on July 18.
After that third transaction, the company looked into all the transactions based on their high-value purchases and the quick-return business.
Bogardus told police such behavior was unusual for any collector the company deals with, and an inquiry into Nordstrom found the checks were legitimate personal checks from his account, but the account had been closed for more than two months.
It was the fourth transaction that police said tripped him up.
On July 19, Nordstrom called Littleton Coin to say he wanted to buy more coins and use any credit shares he accumulated to get another Carson City silver dollar.
In the meantime, Tyler had spoken with Paul Cosgrove, the security of Dean Bank, who he said told him the account closure was because Nordstrom owed money to Dean Bank.
“He told me during the month of May it was discovered Nordstrom was ‘check kiting,’” wrote Tyler. “Check kiting is a form of check fraud involving taking advantage of the float to make use of non-existent funds in a checking or other bank account. In this way, instead of being used as a negotiable instrument, checks are misused as a form of unauthorized credit.”
Cosgrove said at one point Nordstrom owned Dean Bank $14,000. Nordstrom was then allegedly told his Dean Bank account was closed as of May 19 and he could no longer do any business with checks.
Cosgrove, however, told Littleton police that since he spoke with Nordstrom in May, Dean Bank has received multiple checks written from Nordstrom’s closed account, with a majority of them from other coin dealers trying to recover money.
“Cosgrove told me a rough estimate is that Nordstrom has written in excess of $50,000 in checks to coin companies on the closed account,” said Tyler.
Tyler also spoke with Franklin, Mass. police and was told they are investigating Nordstrom and had been dealing with four different banks he allegedly defrauded money from using the check kiting scheme. A debt owned to one bank alone, said Franklin police, was more than $9,500.
On the morning of July 20, with Littleton police tipped off and waiting inside the Littleton Coin Co. security office, Nordstrom arrived at the coin company with a black zipper portfolio, his checkbook within, to make the fourth transaction, which Littleton police observed.
When Nordstrom went to leave through the main door, he was detained by Tyler and Powers, who told him the previous checks were on a closed account and were not good and they had to confirm the fourth check would clear.
Nordstrom allegedly responded he was not aware of the closed account and there must be a misunderstanding.
“Nordstrom allowed us to retrieve the coins from the black zipper portfolio,” said Tyler. “While retrieving the coins, I observed a checkbook as well as a notepad with numerous gold and coin dealers through the state of New Hampshire.”
Police said a search warrant of Nordstrom’s truck turned up the names and addresses of other coin companies and multiple gold coins and silver dollars as well as a packet of pawn slips for Empire Loans pawn shop, of Providence, R.I., and Worcester, Mass., from mid-2016 to the present.
Within the slips, said police, were five sales of gold coins pawned to the Providence location the day of or day after they were stolen from Littleton Coin Co.
A calculation of the amount Nordstrom received from Empire Loans in 2016 was $20,730, said Tyler. In 2017, it was $27,145, with $16,195 during the month of July alone, he said.
Nordstrom, who is being represented by attorney Scott Whitaker of Waystack Frizzell Trial Lawyers in Lancaster, was initially held on $40,000 cash bail, but was released from Grafton County jail after bail was amended to $40,000 personal recognizance.
He is scheduled to answer for the charges Sept. 18 at Grafton Superior Court.
In N.H., a Class A felony charge is punishable by a maximum prison sentence of 7½ to 15 years.
According to his pre-release questionnaire, Nordstrom was attending Northeastern University, in Boston, but is currently on medical leave.
http://www.caledonianrecord.com/news/local/littleton-police-mass-man-steals-k-in-coins-from-littleton/article_6825d4a9-7211-54e7-b90d-84bd7dd2f546.html
I hope that they put him away for a long time.
I guess they (Littleton) do not have a check reader that approves/declines instantly.
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There is no way to run in this day and age from such obvious fraud. Probably after the guy gets a psych evaluation the lawyer will plead for leniency. "Calling all cars be on the lookout for Wayne Nordstrom".
I still have the urge to polish my car bumper.