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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;The Penny Lady®, post: 522809, member: 16948&quot;]I thought I&#039;d post a bit about how the Bakersfield show went at the Red Lion Inn, but the high (or low) light of the show ended up being that I caught a guy stealing some of my coins from my lower end coin notebooks.&nbsp; I&#039;ve had coins stolen from me at shows and I usually don&#039;t discover it until I do an inventory (recently, I had over $700 in certified errors cents stolen from my table), and it makes me so very angry that these sneaks get away with my coins practically from right under my eyes, but they are really good at their &quot;trade&quot; and usually have a partner to help distract the dealers.&nbsp; Well, I don&#039;t think this guy had a partner, nor do I understand why he was taking such a risk on only relatively cheap coins (total of $40 worth).&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>This is what happened.&nbsp; It was Saturday, the last day of the coin show, and I saw this guy looking through my lower-priced Lincoln notebooks and remove a few coins from the sleeves to get a closer look, as people usually do.&nbsp; I was working this show by myself so my attention was diverted to other customers and when I looked back, this guy had moved down the aisle to another table (probably about 15 feet away).&nbsp; However, since I didn&#039;t see him put the coins back in their sleeves, I decided to keep an eye on him as he looked through the other dealer&#039;s notebooks and, sure enough, when he thought no one was looking, I saw him peer above his glasses, quickly look around, and slip a coin out of the sleeve and slyly put it in his pocket.&nbsp; I didn&#039;t want him to get away, so I quietly retrieved the security guard and told him what happened.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The security guard went over to this 60-ish guy and asked him to see what was in his pocket.&nbsp; The guy pulled out 5 coins, and said that they were from the book he was currently browsing through, but the dealer at that table only recognized 2 of the coins as being his.&nbsp; That&#039;s when I walked over and saw that the other 3 coins were mine!&nbsp; I immediately told the security guard that I wanted this guy arrested and that I would definitely press charges.&nbsp; The thief tried to talk to me to &quot;explain,&quot; but I wouldn&#039;t listen to any of that.&nbsp; He then offered me 3 times what the coins were worth to not press charges (I couldn&#039;t believe it when he pulled out his wallet and showed me that he had plenty of money!!!), but I was really angry at this guy and again I said no way, that I wanted him to go to jail!&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The security guard asked me if I was sure I wanted to press charges since it meant I would most likely have to return to Bakersfield, and I said absolutely, that this guy probably stole coins from others and will probably do it again, that at least he would have this charge on his record, whether or not he actually spent time in jail.&nbsp; So the security guard called the local police, who showed up, talked to the thief, took him outside, handcuffed him, and put him in the police car while he took the security guard&#039;s and my statements.&nbsp; Then, after speaking to his commander, the officer simply wrote the thief a citation to appear in court since it was only a misdemeanor, and released him.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The show promoter who, by the way, was the other dealer from whom I saw the thief steal coins, decided not to press charges since he knew I was already pressing charges (let me say that, although I strongly disagree with his refusing to press charges, I understand since I know it can be time consuming should the case end up going to trial).&nbsp; The show promoter did take a picture of the thief and promised to post it and pass it around to other dealers.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Any way, that&#039;s my first personal experience with a thief.&nbsp; I must say that it is very disconserting and aggravating to have this happen, and pretty much spoiled my day, but I look at it as a lesson learned and promised myself to pay much more attention to my &quot;lesser valued&quot; coins since those are the ones out in the open and much more subject to &quot;disappearing.&quot;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>By the way, understandably, people seemed to not want to spend their money and the show was not that profitable for me, but I do plan to set up at the September show to see if it is any better, since there are no other coin shows within that region and I&#039;m hopeful things will turn around.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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