i was thinking the same thing about flipping them on eBay... but if he was under surveilance, his ebay sales would have just been more proof if they search that far into his activities.
He never would have gotten caught as there would still be the same ammount of coins. What would they press charges on?
Stealing, he removed them from Brinks' possession in the first place. You can't walk out of a store with merchandise and claim you were going to return it. Also the article says they had video surveilance of him leaving with a stuffed bag of coins.
