Stealing $4M, at knifepoint

Robbers in surgical masks pulled off a $4 million coin heist at knifepoint outside a coin dealers convention, getting away with gold, silver and a rare 1843 set of currency once owned by President Tyler, authorities said.

It was the second time in two years that the Florida United Numismatists' annual coin show had been hit, and this year's loss was much larger.

On Saturday, a Minnesota coin dealer's employee was unloading an SUV outside a luxury hotel when a robber in a surgical mask and a hooded sweater grabbed him from behind and held a knife to his throat, witnesses and the victim told authorities. Two other masked men grabbed a suitcase from the SUV, according to authorities.

Full article here. I'm surprised the dealers involved weren't more careful; as I've noted before, the norm among jewelry dealers is to have their wares picked up and delivered by an armored car service like Brink's -- even dealers with inventory worth much less than this loss. But perhaps coin dealers haven't been hit so hard as jewelry and watch dealers, at least until recently:

Last year, thieves stole about $450,000 worth of coins by breaking into cars, most of them while dealers ate in restaurants.

Now that's really sloppy, though all too familiar.

Posted by David on January 15, 2007 10:18 PM