Again in June, we introduced the thrilling information that the Royal Australian Mint deliberate to launch a restricted run of Bluey Dollarbucks. They’re dollar-sized gold cash, stamped with iconic characters from the present. They work as authorized tender and as additionally as extremely sought-after collectibles.
Police will allege in courtroom a 47-year-old man was an worker at a warehouse the place he situated and stole the Australian Mint packages from the again of a truck on 23 June, 2024. These packages, containing $63,000 price of the limited-edition Bluey Dollarbuck assortment,
Police may also allege that the identical man then listed and bought the stolen cash on-line simply hours after he allegedly stole them. Most of the cash being bought or 10 instances their authentic worth.
Strike Pressure Bandit Solves The Case
A Daring Theft
Police had been made conscious of the theft in early July. In a daring, movie-worthy theft, 500kg pallets of the freshly minted cash had been allegedly stolen off the again of a truck, certain for a Brisbane depot, by a former warehouse worker.
Based on police, they had been saved in a Sydney warehouse for 2 days earlier than being moved.
Strike Pressure Bandit Established
NSW Police have a status for his or her tongue-in-cheek social media humour. Studying they named the group on the lookout for the lacking cash Strike Pressure Bandit (after the favored pup’s father) doesn’t come as a shock.
The Theft & Severe Crime Squad didn’t take lengthy to make an arrest. The cash had been found stolen on July 3rd and, after an intensive investigation, a warrant was served at a Sefton property, leading to an arrest of a 47-year-old male. He was charged with three break-and-enter offences.
An Unsuspecting Collector Caught In The Crossfire
Round 1,000 (of the 63,000 cash) have been recovered, together with 189 cash discovered on the residence of an harmless coin collector. It’s believed he bought the cash on-line and was unaware they had been stolen.
The thief tried to promote the cash on-line for greater than ten instances their worth. It’s thought the remaining cash are normally circulation. The alleged thief was denied bail when he appeared in Paramatta Courtroom.
Det Supt Joseph Doueihi from NSW Police stated that many of the 63,000 stolen cash “stay excellent” and stay in “basic circulation.”
“If you’re a type of fortunate individuals to have come throughout a type of cash, we don’t ask that you just give up that coin. It’s in circulation now, and that’s no difficulty to us, however when you’ve got data the place bulk portions of those cash are saved, we ask that you just contact police as quickly as potential.”
The Royal Australian Mint has stated that it was working with police on the investigation.
Only one fast look on eBay and we are able to simply see extra examples of those cash being resold on-line.
Det Supt Joseph Doueihi from NSW Police stated their investigations had initially led them to the house of a real coin collector who had listed a few of the stolen dollarbucks on the market.
“Our investigation at that stage recognized that person who was promoting these cash was a legit coin collector and had innocently come into possession of these gadgets,” he stated.
“Additional investigations recognized a 47-year-old male from a Westmead tackle that was concerned within the theft. We are going to allege that this specific male was an worker of the safe storage facility on the time of the theft.”
“We are going to allege that this specific male facilitated the motion of these cash into an space that isn’t secured inside that storage facility, after which facilitated the theft of these cash.”
“We don’t know what he bought them for, however we all know that as quickly as they had been stolen, they had been offloaded virtually instantly.”
“The theft of those cash have disadvantaged a number of younger kids and members of the group from accessing these cash, so we’re doing our very best to attempt to get well these cash and put them again into circulation,” he stated
Earlier Bluey restricted version cash bought for unbelievable cash on reseller websites like eBay, Gumtree and Fb market. They had been hotly contested within the Royal Australian Mint Bluey Dollarbuck Poll and rapidly offloaded for resale at many instances the unique worth.
Investigations proceed
The alleged thief was denied bail when he appeared in Paramatta Courtroom. Police consider there have been two individuals concerned within the theft.
They urge anybody with data or data about giant portions of the cash to come back ahead or contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or https://nsw.crimestoppers.com.au.
Doueihi stated it was a ‘Bingo second’ after they got here throughout the cash within the arms of a legit collector.
“If the present’s producers resolve to make an episode on this, that might be tremendous,” he added.
What to learn subsequent
