Thief steals 94-year-old Richmond woman's Obama commemorative coin

From television station KTVU News:

(Richmond is located near Oakland and San Francisco, California)

A 94-year-old woman was attacked in her Richmond home this week and police say the suspect robbed her of some items she can't replace.

Richmond police say around 1:45 a.m. Monday (June 27 2016) a man broke into Betty Reid Soskin's second floor apartment, entering through a sliding glass door. He later made his way into her room where she was asleep.

The suspect managed to get away with an iPad, laptop and cellphone. He also took some commemorative coins including one given to her by President Barack Obama for being the oldest park ranger in the U.S. Soskin says most items she can live without, but the coin she received from the president in December is dear to her.

Police describe the suspect as a white male in his early to mid-20s 5'8" with a slim build.

Officers are also warning people to be on the lookout for the coin. "It will be very obvious when somebody comes in and tries to sell the coins or tries to trade it for something else," says Richmond Police Lt. Felix Tan.

The television broadcast only showed one side of the coin:



It appears to be an award token or "challenge coin".

http://www.ktvu.com/news/167592710-story

Let's hope that the thief gets caught and she gets her coin back.

 

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My thoughts on Obama aside, if I was presented a POTUS challenge coin by a POTUS himself, even him, it would be a treasured item. Even if I weren't a coin collector. Very sad, but let's hope this highly identifiable item turns up on ebay either by the theif himself or an unwhitting purchaser trying to flip it.

A POTUS challenge coin has got to be worth what $1k +/- and I bet they aren't traded often

 

Thief probably didn't know what it was when he stole it?

I hope he tries to pawn it (and gets caught) before he sees it on the 6 o'clock news.

 

A POTUS challenge coin has got to be worth what $1k +/- and I bet they aren't traded often[/QUOTE]

No way! I'll send her another one.

 

It is a shame this woman had to go through this.Edited
I do hope the criminal is caught soon and this woman can have her belongings back... especially since she obviously put some value on it. She definitely deserved recognition for her years of work.

 

I believe that her coin has a unique reverse and possibly has her name engraved.

I met Ms. Soskin once in August 2012. She gave the presentation at Richmond's Rosie the Riveter WWII Park during our visit.

 

White house probably has a supply on hand and if she writes them and explains what happened they'll probably send he another on. OK she might not treasure it as much as one handed directly to her by the President himself.

 

Those things are mass-produced. You can get them at any DC souvenir shop.

 

I remember seeing a story on her and her award. I think it was on the Today Show or something.

 

The local ABC television station is reporting that the White House is going to send Betty a replacement coin.

They station also showed a different coin, a National Park Service (NPS) commemorative silver dollar.

The theft is not Betty's first brush with numismatic fame.

On March 9, 2016, she visited the San Francisco Mint to take part in a ceremonial striking of NPS centennial commemorative half-dollar coins.

From SfGate News:

It’s not easy leaving the U.S. Mint in San Francisco, not even for a 94-year-old woman.

That’s because the U.S. Mint makes coins, and it wants to keep the coins it makes, and it doesn’t particularly trust its extra-special invited guests, even when they’re 94 years old.

The 94-year-old woman was Betty Soskin, the oldest National Park Service ranger in the U.S., whom Mint officials had invited Wednesday to be the guest star at a special ceremony. Her job was to press a black button attached to a coin press and make the first half-dollar in the Mint’s new commemorative coin series honoring the Park Service. This she did with flair, pushing the button on cue and sending a shiny coin sliding down the chute while about two dozen guests applauded politely.

But when it came time to leave the Mint, Soskin was subjected to the same rigorous metal detector check that all departing Mint employees must go through, to make sure none of the Mint’s stock in trade is hitchhiking out the door with them. And she flunked it, six times in a row, setting off a bank of red lights as if it were a pinball machine.

“Oh no,” she said, sweetly, after a Mint cop asked her to remove her Park Service tie pin, and then she said, “Oh my goodness” when the cop asked her to remove her belt, then her shoes, then her jacket, then her watch, then her Smokey Bear hat, and each time she set off the red lights again.

“Is it my bra?” she asked with a twinkle, but it wasn’t that. Finally a guard used a handheld wand and asked Soskin to stretch her arms and her legs and, at long last, the U.S. government decided that it was reasonably certain its oldest park ranger was on the up-and-up and she was permitted to depart the premises.

 

Ranger Betty received her replacement medal on Sunday.

This article has a photograph of her holding the medal, identified as a medal this time:

http://www.eastbaytimes.com/breakin...park-ranger-receives-replacement-presidential

Betty Reid Soskin, a park ranger with the National Park Service, shows the replacement medal she received from Sally Jewell, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, at the 72nd annual anniversary of the Port Chicago explosion at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial in Port Chicago, Calif., on Sunday July 17, 2016.

 

Eh... Its only Obama...