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Books stolen from Calgary shop
0

Started by mec3437,

47 posts in this topic

kav

kav

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, JollyComics said:

Yes, it was posted here but it was a long time ago.    I was VERY lucky that I didn't lose $35,500 worth of my books without the insurance after shipping many packages to CL for five years without an incident.

I always photographed all books, keep recording all certification numbers and documentary before shipping them out.  There was a long line and I decided to drop them off at the post office (it was my biggest mistake in my life and I should had them to scan the barcodes) and watched the tracking number online for two days.  All boxes were NEVER scanned and the tracking numbers showed NO routes.  Went to PO where I dropped them off. They didn't have them.  CL never received them after 5 days (it was 2 day Priority Mail). Decided to contact USPS Inspector. They did their best to find those missing packages. It was already over two weeks and I was desperate. Watched eBay and all auction houses if my books showed up. I already informed CGC, CL, CC, HA and all other dealers (as much as I could provide all information to them). On the third week, I was jumpy and saw all my books were on eBay. The seller was https://www.sellmycomicbooks.com/  and dotcomcomics.  I contacted and explained them about my ordeals.  One of them was former CL employees and knew me well.  His partner who lives in Canada was hesitant to return my books back.  I decided to file a report to my local police and contacted PayPal to prevent them after I provided all documentary plus the police report.  The owners decided to do same thing with their local police.  CL was informed and acknowledged by both of us.  All of my books were only ten miles away from CL.  Pretty close.  Finally we learned that person who sold my books to Sell My Comic Books for only $7500 out of Chicago (that was my hunch).  We got her name and reported to USPS inspector.  PayPal decided to refund all money to them and asked them to return my books. I decided to ask the former CL employee to mail all of my books to CL until all of them were safe inside CL.  We just learned very little information about her.  She worked for USPS and decided to sell my books to get cash for her brother and boyfriend for drugs.  That was all we know.  USPS inspector disclosed all information.  I think they were fired and got arrested but there was no way we would know of.  My local police and other police closed the cases.  Only one book is missing. I think it's possibly somewhere in Chicago. Who knows?  I learned my lesson and always have them to scan the barcodes at USPS so all boxes can be tracked anywhere. I have to buy the insurance that over $500 every time.   That was the only incident in 40 years of collecting/selling/buying comic books.

I hate to see all beauties, rarities and expensive books are being stolen and are never seen again.

BTW,   all boxes are no longer routing through Chicago mail processing center after multiple mail thieves. That whole building is closed down and is cleansed.  That was what I heard two years ago.  I used to get scared of my packages going through that dreaded place but not anymore.

unbelievable.

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JollyComics

JollyComics

Posted
Posted (edited)
46 minutes ago, James J Johnson said:

They won't disappear forever. My guess is that at least one of them gets spotted soon. An FF 1 with white pages is a huge attention getter, in or out of any slab. Unkess they were stolen because the thief is a collector and plans to hold them indefinitely, they will show up. The hobby just has to be attentive and care enough to look twice at every 1, 2, or 3 offered for awhile. The #1 is very identifiable, and the 2 and 3 bear marks and mechanics that can positively ID them.

Do you remember this?  You were the last person to write your post on this thread.  No one else posted.  I am still wondered where other books are now.

Do you remember Nick Cage's Action Comics #1 was recovered but two valuable books are STILL missing - TEC #1 and #27.

Edited by JollyComics
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kav

kav

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, JollyComics said:

Sadly we are soft now.

keep all the diamonds you can swallow

unnamed.jpg

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thehumantorch

thehumantorch

Posted
Posted
13 minutes ago, JollyComics said:

Yes, it was posted here but it was a long time ago.    I was VERY lucky that I didn't lose $35,500 worth of my books without the insurance after shipping many packages to CL for five years without an incident.

I always photographed all books, keep recording all certification numbers and documentary before shipping them out.  There was a long line and I decided to drop them off at the post office (it was my biggest mistake in my life and I should had them to scan the barcodes) and watched the tracking number online for two days.  All boxes were NEVER scanned and the tracking numbers showed NO routes.  Went to PO where I dropped them off. They didn't have them.  CL never received them after 5 days (it was 2 day Priority Mail). Decided to contact USPS Inspector. They did their best to find those missing packages. It was already over two weeks and I was desperate. Watched eBay and all auction houses if my books showed up. I already informed CGC, CL, CC, HA and all other dealers (as much as I could provide all information to them). On the third week, I was jumpy and saw all my books were on eBay. The seller was https://www.sellmycomicbooks.com/  and dotcomcomics.  I contacted and explained them about my ordeals.  One of them was former CL employees and knew me well.  His partner who lives in Canada was hesitant to return my books back.  I decided to file a report to my local police and contacted PayPal to prevent them after I provided all documentary plus the police report.  The owners decided to do same thing with their local police.  CL was informed and acknowledged by both of us.  All of my books were only ten miles away from CL.  Pretty close.  Finally we learned that person who sold my books to Sell My Comic Books for only $7500 out of Chicago (that was my hunch).  We got her name and reported to USPS inspector.  PayPal decided to refund all money to them and asked them to return my books. I decided to ask the former CL employee to mail all of my books to CL until all of them were safe inside CL.  We just learned very little information about her.  She worked for USPS and decided to sell my books to get cash for her brother and boyfriend for drugs.  That was all we know.  USPS inspector disclosed all information.  I think they were fired and got arrested but there was no way we would know of.  My local police and other police closed the cases.  Only one book is missing. I think it's possibly somewhere in Chicago. Who knows?  I learned my lesson and always have them to scan the barcodes at USPS so all boxes can be tracked anywhere. I have to buy the insurance that over $500 every time.   That was the only incident in 40 years of collecting/selling/buying comic books.

I hate to see all beauties, rarities and expensive books are being stolen and are never seen again.

BTW,   all boxes are no longer routing through Chicago mail processing center after multiple mail thieves. That whole building is closed down and is cleansed.  That was what I heard two years ago.  I used to get scared of my packages going through that dreaded place but not anymore.

Thanks.  I hate thieves and I'm glad you got most of your books back.

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ADAMANTIUM

ADAMANTIUM

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, JollyComics said:

All of them but one.  5 weeks of hell for me.  Once, all books were safe at CL. I finally fell asleep peacefully.

I've looked at the sellmycomicbooks.com website, they seem like decent folk, glad they were cooperative!

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James J Johnson

James J Johnson

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, JollyComics said:

Sadly we are soft now.

I just heard someone on cable talking about how males now have 30% less testosterone in their hormonal levels than their fathers had an average of 30 years ago! :whatthe: 

 

Contrary to not so long ago, the path of least resistance seems to be the option most often chosen. Internet? Phones? People living a majority of their lives in a virtual world, just pushing buttons instead of pulling levers? God only knows what's causing it if true.

Edited by James J Johnson
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James J Johnson

James J Johnson

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, JollyComics said:

Do you remember this?  You were the last person to write your post on this thread.  No one else posted.  I am still wondered where other books are now.

Do you remember Nick Cage's Action Comics #1 was recovered but two valuable books are STILL missing - TEC #1 and #27.

Though Golden age books are far more scarce than Silver, and fewer numbers are routinely available for sale, there's still enough multiples of each issue around that without having pictures to refer to, that show identifying features, the chance of recovery, without the photos, is slim.

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lizards2

lizards2

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, JollyComics said:
2 hours ago, James J Johnson said:

If stubborn, they could use Dr.Szell's effective method to extract that info !

 

NW9A.gif

Sadly we are soft now.

Oh you silly guys, the U.S. and European governments have concluded that torture doesn't work any more. (tsk)

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shadroch

shadroch

Posted
Posted
57 minutes ago, lizards2 said:

Oh you silly guys, the U.S. and European governments have concluded that torture doesn't work any more. (tsk)

Torture works in that it gets people talking. Where it fails is the person will say anything you want him to.

If you want to get someone to talk, torture him. If you want the truth, don't.

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lizards2

lizards2

Posted
Posted
15 minutes ago, shadroch said:

Torture works in that it gets people talking. Where it fails is the person will say anything you want him to.

If you want to get someone to talk, torture him. If you want the truth, don't.

You must be French, as you are torturing me right now.

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cylinderofantigod

cylinderofantigod

Posted
Posted
22 hours ago, pemart1966 said:

I'm sure that it's been thought of already but, check the store's surveillance tapes.  These guy's appear to know what and who they were looking for and there may be a chance that they were scouting out the store before hand to get the "lay of the land"...

Nice looking FF 1 btw and white pages to boot.

 

If they were any good at what they were doing, they were well-disguised and wearing something different while they were casing the place out. However, after reading the article, my guess is that they weren't, but that's probably a lot of video to go through to get anything interesting, since the earlier break-in might be connected.

 

21 hours ago, JollyComics said:

One person is caught. I am sure they can extract the information from him. Otherwise, they can find his residence or follow all leads to arrest the second person. Hopefully they will recover missing books.

 

The fact that they left the car in the parking lot, and that they didn't park several lots away in the first place, points to the fact that these guys are amateurs. Leaving a car in the parking lot when spooked is a very common beginner mistake in retail theft. When I saw the headlines, I figured that a comic store theft of high-value books was something that would likely have been pulled off by somebody smart, but my new guess is that this was a bunch of dumb tweakers who passed by the store one day and saw a price tag on the books.

If it were something like a professional theft ring, good luck getting one guy to rat out the others, but that's probably their best bet here. I dunno how it works in Canada, but in the States, you'd be looking at felony charges in any state for that amount, and they might offer one guy a deal in hopes of locating the other.

On the other hand, retail theft is a risk vs. reward thing, and if they're not looking at much time, $50K worth of goods might be worth a short stint in jail, depending upon the circumstances. Lot of DA's would cut them a sweet deal if they were first-time offenders, especially if they didn't think of stealing comics as a serious crime (regardless of how much they were worth).

 

21 hours ago, thehumantorch said:

They probably knew that the owner removed big books at end of day.  I don't believe this was a random act.

 

It seems planned out, but it was obviously done by someone who isn't familiar with organized retail theft. They knew the guy was moving the books that day at that time somehow, so it might have even been somebody the comic store owner knew - or at least someone he knew gave the thieves inside info. Disgruntled employee, maybe? Someone who knows the local scumbag brigade says, "Hey, my boss is a and I know where some comics worth fifty grand are gonna be, you want in?" My third guess is that this was planned out by someone on the inside who just wanted the money the comics are worth, or even a collector(s) who wanted the comics for themselves.

I'd wager that the earlier break-in is connected somehow, but it also seems like someone who knows enough to get away with a break-in wouldn't be leaving their car in the same parking lot as the store, so who knows.

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