Your worst nightmare come true........

So as many of you may have noticed, I have been fairly absent for awhile. I have been busy with work and have sort of put coins on the back burner.

During this time, I have been buying houses as sort of a side investment, and was in the process of funding my next deal when my absolute worst nightmare came true.

I had taken 18 of my higher end PCGS graded coins out to see about scaring up the last few thousand dollars I needed to complete this latest transaction. My box consisted of 14 seated liberty quarters (All AU or better) and 4 other various PCGS coins that were decent enough.

As my luck would have it, the person I was needing to speak with was out of the office for the day (I was looking a short term loan from a friend who does that sort of thing), and I ended up carrying my coins back home with me.

Thinking nothing of it, I stuck my coins under my middle seat, and went on about my daily business. Had a great day, everything was going fine, got home, had dinner, spent time with the family, and went to bed.

Next morning I wake up, normal routine, get ready, and head off to work.

Immediately I notice my passenger door is letting air in. So I reach over and pull it shut. Just about that time, my heart sank. I saw a dirty footprint on the door. Noticed a sunglass compartment was open, and something didnt feel right.

I looked back for my laptop....still there.

Sunglasses....still on the seat.

Coins under the middle seat compartment.......no rattling.....OH NO! THEY ARE GONE!

My heart sank to the bottom of my stomach. $10,000 worth of coins ---- instantly vanished. The whole situation flashing before my eyes as I became frantic.

What do I do?

Who do I call?

Naturally I called the police, and filed the report. Luckily I have detailed photographs thanks to @robec plus all but one PCGS serial number.

Next person I called were some of the pawn shops and my local coin dealer who I trust wholeheartedly. We had a discussion and he was gonna keep his eyes open for me. I thought better of continuing to speak with the pawn shops. They were liable to go dark on this merchandise due to its rarity and valuable nature or just keep it for themselves. I didnt want to cause too much of a rucus, as I felt confident these would surface soon, so I just sat back and waited.

Its been about 4 weeks since all this happened and sure enough as I am trolling ebay tonight, I see 14 of the 18 coins, and it happens to be from a dealer who I buy and sell to here in state. They are about 2 hours away from me, so the thieves were smart enough to at least travel out of town, but thank god they were dumb enough to leave the coins alone and sell them to one of the larger, more prominent dealers in our state.

I am hoping the rest of this will go smooth, as I have never had to deal with recovering stolen merchandise before. And god I hope we get the thief(s) who did this. They dont even know what type of hell they would have had to pay had I caught them red-handed.

You guys have no idea how relieved I am right now, and the lesson that is now SEARED into my brain. You always think this could never happen to you, and it was pure luck and happenstance that I was got the way that I was. I always lock my truck and ALWAYS keep track of my coins.......the universe caught me slipping.....but apparently I must have been doing something right! The return of my coins will be the best christmas present ever!

 

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^^^Few of my POWs^^^

 

Terrible situation but I'm glad you have a lead now. Good luck with getting them back - beautiful coins.

 

I'm glad to hear you recovered you coins, treylxapi47. Any word on the remaining four coins, or if the thieves have been tracked down and arrested?

 

Wow!!!

I'm speechless. I'm sick to my stomach just thinking about it. I'm thrilled you have found most of them. The return of the missing four will be a great way so start the New Year. Did I see the one with the missing cert number? I keep track of all the cert numbers if you need it.

 

I would never leave $10,000 worth of coins in my car ever. you should have known better than to leave them there. I am glad to hear you are getting most of them back thank God.

 

Wow Trey, I'm sorry to hear what happened. I'm glad to hear that most have been recovered. I hope the rest show up soon.

 

It's gotta be someone you know, Trey, or someone who has been watching you. They didn't take the lap-top, but they knew enough to fumble around under the seat. I'm happy to see that you should be getting most (if not all) of the coins back.

 

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It was not happenstance. You were targeted, and IMO by someone who may have also been willing to risk going into your home if the coins were not in the car. I would suspect anyone who knew these coins would be out of a safe area --- you taking them to work a deal, that deal not being able to be done --- which leaves you taking them home. Perhaps you were even followed and surveilled to see what the likelihood you still had them on you and if you would take precautions with them. IMO this car break-in was only for the coins and no other purpose. You left a laptop in there (and perhaps other things) and nothing else was disturbed or taken? You left the car unlocked?

Your only saving grace on this is not their stupidity of getting rid of the coins as is --- slabbed -- but that you have pics and cert numbers to track them and you stopped talking to people in the community quick enough for them to think it was safe to sell them.

I would really be concerned as to who knows your habits, because should this happen again the coins may get set free before selling.

 

I agree with @Kasia someone knew you had those coins in the car, you were watched at some point. The fact that your laptop was left in the car is proof of that. They targeted the coins, not any valuables in the car.

 

I hope that everything works out for you!

 

I can clear the air on anyone knowing. It was not anyone close to me.

No one knew my intentions. No one saw them go to the car. And I never took them into my meeting place with my friend.

It was 100% a crime of pure circumstance. After walking back through the whole thing, it only makes sense that I was a victim of an opportunistic little punk.

It's highly unusual for me to ever have my coins exposed like that and I do live on a road that's a large thoroghfare with dubious foot traffic.

I am well aware not to handle my coins like this, and I just slipped up. It also doesn't help that my truck has that stupid blinking res light indicating whether it's locked or the alarm functioning. So all anyone had to do was walk by and notice it was unlocked and bingo. Score for them.

I completely analyzed all my friends/associates. I don't have a lot of close people, and no one knew those coins were moving around. Just pure chance.

 

Clarification. Front passenger door was the one opened. Coins were under the middle front seat in compartment - the easiest and closest thing to reach.

All commotion happened in front seat. Laptop was behind the seat in a black bag, in literally the most difficult place to reach from their vantage point.

No one knew I was transporting those coins at any point, ever.

 

There's a lot of theft in the Detroit area where someone opens a door quickly, reaches in to a compartment (or sees a purse) and grabs what ever is there, and skirts away. This sounds like the same thing.

I'm glad that you tracked the coins. I hope you get them all back.
Amazing coins.

 

Totally agree, it was someone who knew you collected valuable coins...and with due respect, if you had to "to see about scaring up the last few thousand dollars I needed to complete this latest transaction" you are shooting craps.

 

I keep nothing valuable in those storage compartments. The experiened theves know where every one of them are and hit those first because they are where people store handguns. They were in and out in less than a minute guaranteed. Same with your house. The best place to hide things is where you can't remember where you hid it, because if it is a common place, they know where it is.

 

It's similar to someone walking past an open Bank Truck and walking away with a pot of gold.

I hear of this stuff happening all the time. In Detroit the city is putting up cameras at gas stations. Plenty of examples out there:
http://ktla.com/2016/06/30/woman-pu...y-a-thief-is-stealing-her-wallet-in-west-l-a/
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/...atter-of-seconds-at-fla-gas-station/337269716

Detroit's solution
http://www.freep.com/story/news/201...deo-camera-based-anti-crime-program/84803842/

 

Did you get all 18 coins back? I'm paranoid about carrying 1/4 or 1/10 as much in coins around!