USPS Coin Thief

Saw this post on Reddit. Not my coin. I know it’s not a US coin however, this theft happened in the US. Redditor purchased this coin from eBay. Coin was shipped through USPS from Illinois to Southern California. Package arrived resealed with no coin inside. Please be on the look out for this coin. If the thief is smart enough they’ll crack it out of the holder. Redditor has contacted the eBay seller, NGC, and USPS. Attached are pictures from the Reddit post of the coin and the package as it arrived from USPS. Has anyone had this type of thing happen to them? This is a very scary situation for us coin people

 

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Hope they catch the person that took it.

 

That coin will be easy to spot if someone tries to sell it.

 

Is there dealer-wide alert system?
If so, who activates it?
ANA?

Anyway, thanks for your post.
It's the only way I'd know about this sort of thing.

 

Not sure. NGC should be able to put out some type of alert for the coin similar to how they put the possible counterfeit when you search the cert number of counterfeit holders.

 

Hope they catch the thief as this should be an easy coin to spot.

 

Welcome to Coin Talk @Hawkeye00
As to your question: "Has anyone had this type of thing happen to them?" Yes. It happens more than the public knows.
Looking at the damage on the box, depending on how the coin was "secured" inside, it is possible USPS machinery ripped the corner and the coin escaped. It happens, so it may not be a stolen coin. It may be laying on the processing floor or already in the "lost items" box.
I hope they had insurance and file a claim, or if no insurance, file a missing report for USPS to open an investigation.
Good luck to the owner.

 

Should get a refund from the seller, and it's the seller who should pursue getting the coin back or insurance payment. It's the seller who does the shipping (does the packaging, selects the carrier, gets it into the carrier's hands). Pictures of the box are important evidence. If seller is reluctant to provide a refund, buyer should start a case with eBay.

I've received boxes shipped USPS that had a hole and stuff was missing. Never happened with coins though. Looked like a rough handling tear. If there was a thief, hope they pay a price.

Cal

 

USPS has free packing materials.
I always double wrap packages with coins stuff these days.
If nothing else use a USPS envelope taped inside of the flat rate box.
I hear priority mail is the best way to ship coin stuff?
Something about tracking scans when ever it moves.
In this case IF the machine at the outer box and an employee taped it back up to send it on, it would have likely saved some hasle.
I only recall on package with coins go Missing in 30 years.
An assortment of peace dollars from Florida to Arizona.
Tracking number said it was delivered but never hit my mailbox and the USPS couldn't locate the package after checking the GPS location it was supposed to be dropped CLOSE to.
FWIW, my postal service people are not very good and ALWAYS talking on the phone while delivering the mail.

 

We've been in our home for almost 30 years. In that time we haven't mailed one single piece of outgoing mail in our curbside box in the last 29 years.

In the first year we had sooo many other misdelivered pieces of mail in our box, it was blatantly obvious that pieces of our mail had to be misdelivered and never reached us as well. Some we knew about, others that were sent to us, but we were unsuspecting, we'd never know if it got to us.

We decided back in the early 1990's to stop sending mail from our box. The horrible service of the USPS dates back decades. This is nothing new.

 

That package looks like it was used in the film prop on ace venture , pet detective

 

That's such an odd tear in the box I suspect it got ripped by machine somewhere along the way. If stolen by an employee, seems like they'd do a quick slice with a box cutter or whatever. I only had this happen with a box of bicycle related stuff, where a small hole got torn in the corner and a new tool slipped out. The company sent me another one, which they can't do with coins of course.

@masterswimmer USPS sucks where I live too. Most recently I got a jury summons intended for someone else. If I had tossed it in the trash, that person would be in legal trouble. About a year ago my wife's 401k statement went to someone else. Like I want a stranger looking at her savings info... Maybe they've always sucked, but it sure has gotten worse in the past 3-4 years.

 

That hole was definitely caused by a machinery. It’s a small flat rate box and there wasn’t anything in that corner of the box to keep it from crushing and being ripped open.
It probably happened in one of the large processing plants that handled it in its travels from Illinois to California. If the coin was stolen it was by an employee that found it rather than turning it in. I doubt that is the case due to all of the security in those types of buildings.
The coin should have been turned in and sent to Georgia. A report needs to be filed with USPS and if that’s the case, it can be located and returned to the correct person.

 

I have had a few packages show up this way, nothing was missing however the
contents were damaged in more then
a few occasions, maybe the USPS
should use a little more TLC !

 

Here is a thread linking the resources I've heard of. https://www.cointalk.com/threads/on-line-databases-can-help-locate-stolen-numismatic-items.130988/

 

I got coins from @Kentucky and a few were missing. I didn’t want to file a complaint against Kentucky cuz they were free. I got the 2009 set he sent. It was for the granddaughter birth year.

 

From your lips to God's Ears...how much weight do you pull?
Occasionally a package would show up at work address to the shop and no one ordered anything??
After a few days/week I would contact the shipper and request a pick up.
After 30 days of no pickup the package was disposed of or dispersed.

 

I'm sorry, I didn't know that.

 

0ne of my examples from the good people at USPS, and yes this is exactly the way I received it !

 

On the other side of the coin, I have never received a coin package via USPS that was anything other than perfect. My mail delivery folks are pretty darn good, not that I haven't received the rare mis-delivery.

OTOH, I never leave an outgoing letter in the mailbox. I always hand it to the postal worker directly and I always try to receive any packages by hand. Of course, I'm retired and I can see the truck coming.