I could really use your help. Stolen/lost items. Reward offered
Justacommeman
Posts: 22,852 ✭✭✭✭✭
The following items were stolen or lost while in the possession of the Untied States Postal Service. I believe while in California. Either Studio City or Van Nuys. I’m hoping someone will be kind enough to post this to the allengelhard and Bullion Stacker boards. I’m not a member of either. I will be filing a police report tomorrow as well as to the Numismatic Crime Unit. I will also be visiting the Post Office tomorrow. Please let me know if you have any other suggestions. Besides the monetary loss it’s the uniqueness of the items I don’t want to see reduced to melt. Some are down right rare.
This was shipped last Thursday Priority Overnight and just arrived today. Eight days. I’m pretty sure the theft happened in California and showed up damaged in Memphis several days later. I have all the tracking. Someone added weights to the package with a few of the original items. The rest was stolen or is missing at a Post Office facility.
The buyer opened this in front of his Post Office. I’m in Mexico now and don’t want to lose anytime so I’m posting here. Could use all the help I can get. $1000 reward to someone who can help me catch this person/persons. Please don’t tell me what I should Have done differently. I feel awful as it is. Please be kind enough to help in the present. I truly appreciate it friends. I’ll take any advise on how to move forward in tackling this or what I might expect. Maybe a checklist on how to proceed. I ’m in uncharted waters. Phone numbers and emails would help greatly. I’m also out of the country at the moment. Mark
List of items stolen:
Engelhard 5 oz items with serial numbers
51496
58012
239877
C220622
240063
2 without serial numbers
Engelhard 10 oz items with serial numbers
P423125
P288824
P025789
P065788
PO96323
C112511
P116211
P427344
P427407
P215620
P211824
2 JMC 3 oz silver bars
1 Engelhard 3 oz silver bar serial number 39834
I JM 14.1 oz silver bar 79669
1 Engelhard 1969 4 piece Hallmark100 gram set. In case with booklet.
Engelhard 2 oz gold bar
Hoffman and Hoffman 5.21silver bar
JM 100 gram bars with serial numbers
Canada 002078
Canada 001525
JM 100 gram bars with no serial numbers
Garantito
Silver Jubilee
Sweitzerisher Bank
J&M
Here a compilation of what was stolen:
The 5 oz gold bar was not part of this shipment
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
Comments
Could you fingerprint the weights they replaced it with?
...keeping my eyes and ears wide open in the so-cal streets Mark...Pulling 4 you bro!
They are in possession of the buyer. I will tell him to bag them.
If someone posts to Allengelhard or Bullion Stackers will let me know so I can provide contact info.
m
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
That is a possibility if they haven't been touched (or touched too much) since opening.
Great transactions with oih82w8, JasonGaming, Moose1913.
I suspect registered will be your friend next time.
I'm sorry for your loss. I had a registered package stolen last year...but after a little hassle the USPS did pay up.
Did you have insurance? Get the USPS postal inspectors on it ASAP even if you didn't have insurance!
I would start with who knew about the transaction. Second, ask the postal of any new hirelings or recent postal employee departures. With the weights, the crime was anticipated. They saw you coming. Heavy packages breed suspicions in 'what's in the box? Make a list of all coin shops and pawn shops and contacts within and inform them of your missing items. Likely within a 300 mile radius. All I can think of but building that chain of contacts is going to take some work, a lot of searching and phone calls.
Leo
The more qualities observed in a coin, the more desirable that coin becomes!
My Jefferson Nickel Collection
Wow, that sucks.
If the package was insured, the USPS would definitely do an investigation with their own Postal Inspection Service immediately.
It appears whoever did it is experienced and is prepared to steal by having the weights to add. Most likely this is a continuing problem from the same USPS location / hub, and they will able to hopefully zone in on the culprit(s).
Oh my Mark that really sucks. I recall the offer so assume it was a buyer here. We will send out the details of this to our buyers and let the others know. Please keep us posted.
Best place to buy !
Bronze Associate member
Hope you catch the bastards.
Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value. Zero. Voltaire. Ebay coinbowlllc
Clearly this would have happened while in the possession of the post office. I would go directly to your postmaster where you mailed from, If this were shipped registered mail (which I assume it was due to value of contents) there will be very strict controls and records of who handled the package, when "damage" occurred etc. They should be able to track it back and possibly even have video surveillance of the crime. Good luck, hope they nail the thieves.
Posted at Bullion Stackers.
If anyone thinks posting this to any other social media vehicles would help please do. I’d appreciate it. I don’t belong to any. I want to keep the pressure up.
mark
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
I'm sorry to hear about your issue. Postal inspectors should be involved, and there is a link on their website to report stolen mail. I've filed a couple of complaints in the past with success, and I was promptly contacted.
Hope you catch the perp.
I know you are focused on the immediate crisis, but I hope that after the dust settles, we can get some details that we can all learn from.
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson
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Wrong tree. It happened way before that. This overnight package took 8 days and was completely off the grid for 5 of the days. Besides he’s a personal friend
Mark
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
That's awful. It required a little planning to have weights available.
Hope the property is returned to you or the buyer.
Correct. If the package arrived partial and damaged without weights I wouldn’t have known it was an outright theft
mark
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
Yes, that is one that that struck me. Perhaps somebody was looking out for precious metals in general, and had some weights handy to help cover their tracks, but that does seem like a lot of forethought.
I cant help track this down, alas, but best of luck.
Mark, Have you contacted Doug@Numismatic Crimes? Link someone?
Sorry to hear about this Mark. Hope they get the SOB who did this and recover your property!
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I'm sorry to hear about your loss, Mark, I always appreciate your savvy posts.
This is a crime on a number of levels, the postal inspectors should take this very seriously, you could also try an online report with the FBI, I would think it would qualify with what they cover. It sure looks like a lot of premeditation to me; who has weights hanging around to replace bullion like this?
There is a substantial food chain with the usps; postmasters, inspectors, insurance specialists. If one doesn't take it seriously others may. A private eye may be willing to work on contingency on the case, just a thought.
I feel awful for you and hope they can determine when the package started to stray on it's journey. Keep the container, tape and all, there could be evidence throught, prints, DNA, etc. I attempted a certified letter from Dulles, Virginia to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on Feb 20, It has bounced between DC and Harrisburg, PA 12 times, they claim they can't stop it. I have lost faith in the Postal Service, I hope your situation restores my faith. Im pulling for you!
(l8-)>>
32 items, and what was the total weight of the package? I deal with the USPS every day and I mean every day, it's part of my job. I pick up mail for clients and also drop off mail, I have been doing this for 25+ years and have some inside as to how the system works along with how it doesn't (work).
"Someone filled the package with weights to cover it up and left only a few items in the package. The rest was stolen."
What items were left in the package?
I had coins "missing" from several shipments in the 1980's, this is back when I had a subscription to Coin Word and had to make a personal phone call to secure my choice of coins along with a check OR (if you wanted your coins faster) a money order (anyone?). Postal carriers always had the best collections back then...........................?
A few silver bars where left
mark
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
Dang Mark, that stinks! Fingers crossed but with the work they went through with the weights, they probably are not going to show up on the open market. Shame!
Bullion value?
Ouch. Big time Ouch. I suspected the buyer too until you said personal friend. I don't even know where I would start on this one. What percent of it was insured?
Make sure you call these "Collectible Bars" and not bullion.
USPS won't cover bullion unless you sent it registered and from your photo it was obviously not registered mail.
It may be hard to talk the USPS into not calling these bullion if they see photos?
Were there seperate boxes inside the main box?
Mark,
I'm going to "cut and copy" your OP and show it to some of the higher-ups that I know that work for the USPS.
Is the image of the package the way the buyer received it?
As someone else posted you should contact doug@numismaticcrimes.org
ASAP This is the best chance of you getting any of the items back.
Sorry about the loss. I would suspect if the package was off the map for a few days that gave the scumbags time to create the weights to match the weight of the original package. Somebody's head should roll for this one.
My Ebay Store
Damn, Mark that is terrible. I will post this on the OFR collectibles section. Hope that you are made whole.
I will PM you all the pics and thank you very much.
mark
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
Hi Mark,
I’m sorry this has happened to you and boy I’m so sorry for your loss.
I live way up in Northern California in the mountains so that might sound like I’ll not be much help. But what I will do is talk to all of my friends and friends coin circles I’m involved in to put out the word. You never know where they could pop up or if they will but if they do I’m pretty sure it’s not going to be close to they were stolen.
Again I’m so sorry my friend , Joe
Thanks Mark and thanks all! I’m taking off soon. Hopefully one of you detectives will have this solved in the next three hours ; )
I need my faith in humanity restored
m
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
I submitted an online report and thank you!
m
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
One would think that a postal employee could have done a better job of "fixing" the damage. Does the USPS keep records of insured packages being repaired?
I’m just very leery of what I should say at the post office. I highly suspect the office I shipped from
Mark
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
I think you have a little too much faith in the intelligence of others.
My Ebay Store
Don't tell them they are bullion as others have stated. Tell them they are collectibles. Hopefully Doug will have some direction for you. I would not immediately suspect that the items will be melted. Quite possible they end up at a pawn shop or coin shop.
My Ebay Store
Someone knew something. Otherwise these perp(s) would be opening many packages.
Was there anything on the package that said "treasure inside?"
Did you read my post about a month ago by which the USPS put an apology note on my box which had 2 boxes of 50 rolls each....of cents in them.... busted open and retaped together by the post office and delivered to me. My box was 4 days late.
The moral here is look to the postal workers.
Sorry for your loss.
Heavy packages shipped express mail attract attention.
Then he should work with police and recreate this situation and catch the perps.
Do you trust the buyer? Did he / she open it at once on the USPS counter or did he / she take the box out of USPS sight & returned to claim? There should be camera on every angles I would hope. Good luck Mark!
This +1
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The buyer is above reproach. The package was supposed to be over night. It took 8 days. It was completely missing for 5 of those days. It was 100% NOT the buyer. Thank you for your well wishes
Mark
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
I hope you'll find resolve soon. I am so sorry again.