So...I caught my first Coin Thief!

I don't think sympathy or pity will help. He needs something that would help, I'm just not sure what it is. A sandwhich board with "Coin Thief" would be a good garment at the next show he is allowed to attend?

 

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Surely you wouldn't condemn anyone suffering from a mental illness?

If you sold a coin to a schizophrenic would you charge him/her double?

My father was once caught shoplifting but, thankfully, not prosecuted. He was suffering from Pakinson's and the onset of senile dementia at the time. Had he been charged and convicted should he have been made to walk around with a sandwich board?

As I said in my first posting I'm only playing the devil's advocate.

 

While I do understand where you're coming from, I play in a 3 strikes and you're out league. He done used them all up....

 

There are all types of crazy ideas of what is a "mental illness" or "handicap" or or or.
He's a convicted thief. Even in your scenario he should be kept away from coins and coin shows. Or do you think that it's ok for a person with a "mental illness" of alcohol to be hanging out in a bar?

I fear this thread is about to enter the political realm...

 

Nah...I've said my peace.

 

Yeah, me too, I wash my hands (about 60 times should do it) of the whole subject.

 

I'm a firm believer that the justice system must be changed to permit 'guilty, but insane or with mental deficiency' to replace not guilty by reason of the same. This should also require institutional incarceration, just not in the criminal setting. Six months in a psych ward or jail depending on the finding. Society should never just let it go so it can be done again.

 

Yes, SOME shoplifters are in fact people with a mental illness, and who aren't criminally responsible for their acts. The thief at the coin show isn't one of them. He carefully plans his crimes and carefully executes them.

His illnesses are selfishness and disregard for his fellow man, and the cure is excluding him from the activities he uses as cover for his crimes.

 

I find that you always get more accomplished with a kind word and a gun, than with just a kind word.....hey, I'm just sayin.

 

How about of good ole fashion 'waterboarding' Dick Cheny style???

 

And sometimes they live to regret that position. At the first coin show I ran we caught a guy at a dealers table with 18 of the dealers silver dollars in his pockets. We tried to get the dealer to press charges but no he just wanted his silver dollars back and then he was ready to drop the whole thing. I got a call from him about a week later. It seems when he got home he discovered he had over $6,000 worth of capped bust halves missing and he remembered that the guy had been at his table the day before we caught him, and he had been going through his capped bust halves! Turns out he was known as a thief by long time club members (would have been nice if they had told ME since I was running the show) Seems he stole coins and his wife stole jewelry.

Only thing I can think is that he felt he had the right to take other peoples property. Seems he made his living as an IRS auditor. (Might also be why no one wanted to make trouble for him.)

 

This thread was from before I joined CoinTalk, so I'm reading it now for the first time.

My hat is off to you Charmy. Wow. THANK YOU. I get so tired of people enabling people and you took him to task. That is what should have happened, and because of you, it did happen.

Three cheers for Charmy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Yikes, sucks you have these kind of people.

Maybe shoulda let him in to the last show and just let security follow him and get another conviction on him.

 

In some countries they chop your hands off for stealing...

Maybe we should start a pool to buy him a one way ticket there???

 

More dealers should press theft charges than what is happening, because pressing charges does not automatically mean you have to go to court. **Most** criminal cases don't make it as far as a court trial.

The criminal is usually given a plea offer. The victim dealer communicates with the District Attorney by consenting to this plea offer, or not. If the plea is taken by the criminal, no court appearance is required of the victim.

If for some reason the case must be taken to trial or dropped, then the victim can communicate to the DA that they do not want to appear in court, and the charges will usually be dropped (uncooperative victims are not good for the DA at a trial). At this point, the dealer usually has his/her coins back anyway.

So, Charmy, convince your dealer friends to at least initially insist on pressing charges. :hammer:

 

Believe me, I have voiced my opinion to many dealers that they should always press charges, but they prefer to get the money from the thief, or just make it go away.

I told the DA that I would take it all the way if necessary, but asked the DA if they did plea him out, they consider his second thievery at the SC show, and that they make it a condition that the thief never be allowed to attend a coin show at least during his probation, but they said they couldn't/wouldn't do that. It was frustrating in that I really wanted a say, but didn't get to have one.

 

I hear ya.

In the Old West, thieves were told to be out of town by sunset...nowadays, we can't even tell them to avoid the next coin show!

 

Criminals often return to the scene of the crime, but this guy is ridiculous. TC

 

"The only power comes out of a long rifle."
-Josef Stalin

 

Good for you! He should have gotten a good xss kicking because quite honestly it will never go to trial!!! The DA will offer him a deal and he will most likely have to pay a fine and that will be the end of it!!