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Wrong On All Kinds of Levels
cmerlo1
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This article was posted on Twitter this morning. While it is horrifying, there are either issues with how the collection is being valued, or this is the second time the owner was ripped off, the first being when he bought the coins.
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_The store’s owner, George Hornberg, told The Palm Beach Post on Tuesday the total actually was $2,330. He said he spent about 2½ hours processing the coins. He said unlike valuable jewelry, sales of collectible coins do not require filling out of paperwork. He said he is cooperating with law enforcement.
Mele told police he dumped the rest of the collectibles in “Coin Star” machines at area grocery stores. People often trade large stashes of loose coins for store credit, minus a fee of as much as 11.9 percent.
That means if he dropped in the 33 presidential coins, valued at $1,000 each, he got about $29.30._
I would like to see the $1000 presidential coins. I could not find where what he paid was listed, just what he valued them at.
WOW!
i have a roll of prez bucks here somewhere I'm RICH !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Presidential coins at 1k each? Edit to say I must be the best tipper ever.
Oh my!
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I really hate hearing of this (though I imagine it happens more than I hear of it and then some).What scum...I can't tolerate thieves of any kind.Makes me a bit embarrassed to live in Palm Beach County.
If you go out to the county site and search for it, you can find the arrest report- it's a distinctive name.
Give the case # 50-2019-CF-001077-AXXX-MB
In the docket is the "CRIM PROBABLE CAUSE AFFIDAVIT"
This is a public record, so I feel it's OK to post a snippet here. The prior paragraph consists of the officer indicating he asked Mr. Mele to perform a taped, sworn interview. To which he agreed. On the tape, he read him his Miranda rights!
Originally bond was set at $15,000, but it appears the defendant was released without bail and with a next court date of March 7th.
ANA 50 year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
So... what (non-slabbed) Presidential coins are worth $1000?
I agree @cmerlo1 this is wrong on all kinds of levels.
Besides the Presidential dollars he had rolls of Statehood quarters that were worth $500 each!
wow is right. amazing
If the thief had tried to put gold or silver through a grocery coin exchanging machine, the coins would have been rejected. This supports the idea of a majority of this stuff being ordinary circulation change - the coin shop got the small amount of good stuff.
Also, where's the remaining $300,000+ of "value" that was stolen?
What a terrible loss.... No matter the total value either real or perceived, the person was depending on those coins for added income.... I hate thieves and liars, and will expose them whenever encountered. Cheers, RickO
OMG, how horrible !!!
Like one commenter at the linked article, I’m wondering, isn’t there any chance of recovering the stolen coins from the machine or from Coinstar? If we’re talking about ordinary circulating coins, I guess that would be kind of impossible.
Do these machines really reject silver? Gold I can imagine, but I’m surprised they would reject pre-64 coins. (I’ve never really noticed one of these kiosks.)
Likely place to see them... Wally’s Marts.
This story makes no sense at all.
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His lawyers should be able to get the charges tossed or reduced easily since it is dependent on the real value of the stolen coins.
Contact the victim and offer to help him replenish his stock!
Not sure where the over valuation is conceptually worse... the $50K of Presidential dollars and state quarters that the Coinstar valued at under $30 (1/1667)... or the "$300K" of "rare" coins that the dealer gave him ($4000 - $30) for (1/75th)...
Clearly there were TWO crimes here... the original rip-off of the collector and the theft of the collection.
Certainly seems like a competent public defender can get it knocked down to petty larceny.
Yup. Lots of threads all over about people finding silver in the reject trays
ANA 50 year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
No bail, no address, no problem for the perp. Gone in 60 seconds! Gotta love the legal system.