Do you think coin show security will increase the way things are going? The large shows seem to be covered but the smaller shows leave me a little uneasy. I like to carry my own security in various forms, but some places they hold these shows are off limits. And I don't see any security guards around. If there are, they don't look too intimidating. I wouldn't want to see it hit the fan at the local shows around me. As PMs rise 2% a day, I think these places are going to become bigger targets for a "Joker" style hit out there. There's always been a lot of value but now that even the common stuff has gone up by multiples, I don't think it'll be lost on the criminal element. Everybody pay attention and stay safe out there.
A "Joker-style" hit? Nah. They're generally sneakier than that. At ANA 2022 (Chicago), some people got onto the bourse while dealers were setting up their tables. They simply took their flatbed dolly and found a display case filled with Rolexes and other valuables and flipped it upside down onto the flatbed and dumped some other junk on top of it like they were moving things back to their truck. They walked in and out past "security" and the sheriff's dept. outside with no problems. I recall it was a big stink at the time.
I noticed a lot of security at the last ANA show in OKC. There were a lot of officers walking the show in street clothes. There were also a few wearing suits. They were not shopping, just watching others. It was good to see the show stepping up security.
Funny you mention this. I received a card in the mail for a show coming to my area next weekend and it has a big blurb about security being provided in the parking lot and the hall.
One more story. Years ago there was a coin show in OKC at the fair grounds. If you had a carry permit, you could carry at the show. I didn't but could have. Once in the show there was a lot of security, officers from the police and sheriffs dept. If you were carrying a lot of stuff they would even offer to walk you to your car. Only time I have ever seen that at any show. That's the way Oklahoma is. If you yell for help, lots of folks come running and others are calling the police.
Yes security at coin shows will definitely increase, especially at the bigger shows like the one in Long Beach! On June 6, 2024, a gold nugget worth $80,000 was stolen from Bob Campbell aka All About Coins, a well-known and highly respected dealer exhibiting at the Long Beach Expo. Here's the video!
Same here, I wonder if the thief got caught or not?! Crazy that the seller displayed it for all to see and someone snatched it so brazenly, one bad apple ruins the whole cha cha!
It often amazes me that at the Las Vegas Antiques Arms Fair and Tulsa April and November shows, guns worth tens of thousands of dollars are left on open display and dealers simply walk away. You wouldn't do that over here. I don't think carrying is a valid argument at all because who will commit an armed robbery in the middle of a coin show and besides, what are you going to do, shoot a thief? Homer Simpson had it right on Aircraft security. Hand all the 300 passengers a gun and as there are only usually one or two bad ones, they are outnumbered and nothing will happen and you collect them all at the end of the flight. Seriously though, maybe dealers should have different security. This is me at a Tulsa Show three years ago. Guy was walking around with his "pet" who suddenly put his paws on my table and towered above me . The owner said I think he likes you! Dogs seem to like me but in this instance I said to the owner , I hope he's not hungry! There was enough fat on me three years ago to feed a Wolf for a week.......
I think that was Archie Bunker from "All in the Family," wasn't it? Anyway, I've seen pretty decent security at one of my local "larger" coin shows, the Northwest Coin Club annual show in Minnesota. The private security walks around the show in uniform and makes eye contact with everyone and greets them. There's a local cop or two in the foyer of the single entrance to the building. However, as the video above shows, talented thieves can find the weak spots and take full advantage...
Actually I found it quite distressing at the number of uniformed officers sitting there on their phones ignoring people passing in and out of the show. The facility has an essential problem with the number of (emergency) exits. Since the room can be divided up into many different configuration, there are something around 12 or 14 banks of exit doors, only one of which was in use. And that required 11 or 13 people stopping people from exiting via those other doors.
I noticed that too at OKC. Security sitting on stools playing with their phones instead of watching people. ANA show management should have complained to the security company. Mike
Up here, there have been a couple of thefts where the crooks tailed the sellers back to their hotels and robbed the car after it sat there at night. Some times, the buyers AND the sellers.
I was talking with an officer at the doors at a show a while back. It looked like he was just playing with his phone but he was actually watching live video of everything going on on both sides of the doors. I walked away saying wow, that's cool.
