Stolen Coins Returned,Alleged Thief caught!!

News: Welcome to the Canadian Paper Money Forum.

West Vancouver/ A 63 year old Langley man was arrested by West Vancouver police after an undercover sting operation that recovered five extremely rare Swedish gold coins from the 17th and 18th century that were stolen in West Vancouver more than a decade ago.
The coins were stolen when an absent mindedcollector left his brief case at a clothing store
The five gold coins are worth an estimated $165,000,police said Friday.

The coins recovered were,
a five-ducat Kristina,Riga coin from 1735<a 3 ducat Kristina,Riga(1643),one ducat,Kristina,Riga(1646),
one ducat,Gustav11 Adolph (1632),and one -ducat Karl X11 (1701.
The five-ducat and three-ducat coins are believed to be one of a kind.

Full story in the Vancouver Sun dated October 8,2005.

The Royal Coin Cabinet in Sweden was part of the recovery.The article is lenghty,so I only typed a partial recap.

Do any of the members here recall the news breaking of this theft? Must have been quite the shock waves in the coin world,given the rarity of the coins.

Hard to imagine that a briefcase with such rarities would have been absently left at a store. Nice ending to such a story for the owner. I guess finders keepes doesnt really apply.

Hello canadianpaper:

I guess finders keepes doesnt really apply.

As per the article:snip below.

West Vancouver police were alerted Sept 27 that a man from B.C. had e-mailed the Royal  Coin Cabinet in Sweden- a coin museum that is part of the Museums of National Antiquities-to inquire about selling the coins.
The museum did some checking,and learned the coins were stolen,with the original owners name on file.The museum contacted the original owner,who contacted police.
An undercover police officer,posing as a local coin expert,set up a meeting with the potential seller at the Pan Pacific Hotel on Thursday night.
A team of West Vancouver officers moved in and arrested the man after authenticity of the coins was confirmed.

Very good work to recover the stolen merchandise. The only numismatic items that are 100% able to certify is notes with serial numbers. Only extreme rarities of coins are recoverable in this fashion.

The majority of ICCS and PCGS certified coins stolen are very quickly removed from the holders. Notes have unique numbers, coins all look the same in the raw (generally).

Any certified gold is melted most often.

Anyhow, a great job to nail the crooks.

Rick

The thief has not officially been caught.  Yes, the Langley man who had been in possession of them and who tried to sell them to the Swedish Royal Coin Cabinet was arrested, but he was released on the condition that he appear in court.  AFAIK nobody has been charged yet with the theft.  It could be that the guy was not the thief but a third party.  Police have to be very careful about these details before they lay charges on anyone or they could botch the case.

I guess until charges are laid, and the culprit is given his day in court, we really don't have anything more than the person who last held them may have been in possession of stolen goods.

A good start.

Rick

It could be that the guy was not the thief but a third party.

The Vancouver Sun says your right.

Forum members: Please be exceedingly careful in what you write, or even copy and past from another source when it comes to crime. It is called libel and the libel does NOT need to be widespread (say, as in a daily newspaper) to be damaging to a prosecution's case. Something as seemingly innocent as the header on this thread could be used by a lawyer to have a case declared prejudiced and thrown out. The operative must be — and I cannot stress this enough — ALLEGED, until someone is convicted of a crime. Without that word, only the crown prosecuter (in Canada) is allowed to say the person is a thief until the judge makes the conviction.

Duly noted alvin5454,I have modified the heading to reflect the fact that the "suspect" is not a convicted criminal.

Someone else here mentioned that the suspect has not been charged.Upon reading the article again,that is correct.
The article states"Police will likely send a report to Crown Counsel RECOMMENDING a charge of possession of stolen property over $5000,said West Vancouver police Sgt.Paul Skelton.

Haste makes......

I don't see any libel in anything that was said on this subject. All we know is some guy in BC was arrested for attempting to sell some coins in a sting operation.
He was arrested for, I suspect, possesion of stolen material, with a high value associated with those coins.

That is why we have courts in Canada. It is now up to the judge to convict him or release him.

The overused term "alleged" is heavily used in the US, seldom used here. By using terms like may, suspected, attempting all lead to the same conclusion in this case.

Rick

Rick:
With all due respect, this was an advisory, not a legal opinion.
However, I have been a professional journalist (reporter and editor) at several major Canadian daily newspapers for over 30 years and have much experience with the libel issue.
Being a bit cavalier or sloppy can lead to trouble. The term "alleged" is used worldwide by journalistic endeavors of all kind to keep them out of lawsuits.
It is not simply an overused U.S. term. It is an small but important word that is used every day in Canadian journalism.
Although it is indeed unlikely the slip in this forum would be construed as libelous, a bit of care and attention is not undue.
I would hate to see the operators and members of this forum suffer any repercussions..
cheers.. al

The legal opinion is not necessary as no one has crossed the libel line. I also write in newspapers, newsletters etc.
I am also insured for $3 millon dollars against legal action involving libel and slander.

"my neighbour was charged with impaired driving" doesn't mean he is quilty. He wasn't allegedly charged with impaired, he was charged. He was found quilty, thus we can say that he is guilty of impaired.

Your are never wrong if you express the truth. Hard part is proving that, isn't it?

Rick

My only point is, and it's free and unobtrusive to implement when posting: be careful.

al

I don't know how all this "alleged" and "libel" stuff started, but let's drop it right here, OK? It's not getting anyone anywhere, and it's somewhat off-topic to say the least.

Thanks folks.

Brent, it is not off-topic but a discussion of the topic.
Sometimes a discussion (which this site calls itself a discussion site) leads to differing points of view from the parent subject, but it is a discussion.
Nothing nasty, just good information from different points of view.

The important part is that police have recovered stolen numismatic items, which is always good to hear after chasing notes, coins, gold and cash all over the continent with major thefts seemingly seldom cracked by the police.

We have estabished very heavy duty rules by CAND for security at coin shows to attempt to prevent such things happening there. I will insert those rules if you feel it is an acceptable forum to insert them.

Rick