Stolen coin at oil change place

[Nutmeg Coin]

I had an uncertified 1921 HR dollar stolen last week at "Splash" a car wash and oil change place. I noticed it missing several hours later. I had just bought it from a dealer. So I filed a report with the police station in that town the same day, I waited an hour for a cop to be free to take the report. I confronted the woman who had done the intake on the vehicle and she said because it did not go through the car wash there were only two people who had access to the vehicle. The next day I went to several pawn shops and a coin shop. How do others follow-up on stolen numismatics, does everyone file a police report?

[dadams]

Dang, that's a bummer. Hope you have some luck getting it back.

[physics-fan3.14]

It sucks that it was stolen.

 

I don't want to make you feel bad or anything, but here are a few pointers for our dear readers:

 

NEVER LEAVE VALUABLES IN YOUR CAR.

 

ESPECIALLY IF THEY HAVE ACCESS INSIDE YOUR CAR.

 

ESPECIALLY IF THEY ARE VALUABLE COINS.

 

Many of these sorts of places will post large signs that say "Do not leave valuables in your car."

 

Obviously, if something is stolen from you, it is not your fault, and I don't want to give that impression. However, a little prudence on your part goes a long way...

[cpm9ball]

It sucks that it was stolen.

 

I don't want to make you feel bad or anything, but here are a few pointers for our dear readers:

 

NEVER LEAVE VALUABLES IN YOUR CAR.

 

ESPECIALLY IF THEY HAVE ACCESS INSIDE YOUR CAR.

 

ESPECIALLY IF THEY ARE VALUABLE COINS.

 

Many of these sorts of places will post large signs that say "Do not leave valuables in your car."

 

Obviously, if something is stolen from you, it is not your fault, and I don't want to give that impression. However, a little prudence on your part goes a long way...

 

Jason,

 

It's somewhat ironic that this happened. On our local news this evening, a Cape Coral woman's car parked in her driveway was entered and $3,000 was stolen. She left the car unlocked and said that she was planning on depositing the money in the bank tomorrow.

 

Chris

[Nutmeg Coin]

I was over 2000 miles overdue on the recommended oil change, had patronized the place before, bought the coin the day before. I was about to ship it out for grading. It takes a special form of criminal to sneak into people's private cars and rummage through their personal possessions. Security procedures need to be thought through if people are buying and selling coins, most are not attractive to thieves. You can't always put them in your sdb. One pawn shop guy I spoke with said that that coin is common, and I corrected him on how the other years are common but the 1921 is a much better date especially in MS. I'm sure the thief also did not recognize that it was worth that much. It is essential in theft, especially at places where it is the job of workers to have access to cars, to report thefts and do follow-up work. All it takes is a few thefts from customer's vehicles and the business suffers significantly with police reports and online warnings.

[bsshog40]

I feel sorry for your loss. So how can you be so sure that it was taken at the oil place? Did you check it before and after you left the place. I have a tendency to check my vehicle of things that are valuable to me before I leave any shop.

[Nutmeg Coin]

I don't inventory the entire contents of my car after the rare case a mechanic goes into my car. It was there in the morning, the oil change happened at noon, it was missing in the afternoon. I'm the only one who goes into my car except for rare times when a mechanic works on it. No chance it happened elsewhere, I looked through everything.

[johnny9434]

i hope you get your stuff back. fwiw.

[Hard Times]

NMC, A line from Forrest Gump that I will let you finish.....

 

'Mama always said............'

 

Sorry, but why on earth would you put a low wage worker in a situation like that to tempt them and to fail? Unsecured money in your car of any type. Come on. What do all them Elephant politickers say about taking responsibility for ones own actions? Sorry but no empathy here.

 

Best, HT

[Nutmeg Coin]

NMC, A line from Forrest Gump that I will let you finish.....

 

'Mama always said............'

 

Sorry, but why on earth would you put a low wage worker in a situation like that to tempt them and to fail? Unsecured money in your car of any type. Come on. What do all them Elephant politickers say about taking responsibility for ones own actions? Sorry but no empathy here.

 

Best, HT

 

First of all my question is legal procedure with theft which is a ubiquitous problem in numismatics.

 

And to twist this into a Pavlovian necessity for workers to steal who see valuables, which happens on a daily basis around the world and then to blame owners of stuff for not locking everything up because the temptations are unbearable for low wage workers? What about low income workers like honest dealers in numismatics such as myself, who has never stolen stuff like that? Oh, and be sure all you girls lock your doors at night because the guys in the house are like wolves and can't help themselves...

[coinman_23885]

First of all my question is legal procedure with theft which is a ubiquitous problem in numismatics.

 

I don't really see this as a legal question as much as a practical one. Was it certified? Do you have images? If it was raw and you don't have pictures, I don't think the odds of recovering are high at all. If the police care enough, and should a criminal case result, be sure to ask the prosecutor for a restitution order. In my jurisdiction, anything over $200 is grand larceny (felony), and I have seen prosecutors drop it to a misdemeanor if restitution is paid quickly (i.e. before trial) so in that scenario you might have a bit of leverage to get your money back quickly if the theft meets the requirement of your state's felony larceny statute.

[KMAG100]

Try turning it in as a claim to insurance as a theft. See what happens.

[asdfgh]

As a side note, leave some loose change in your car when you get a wash or oil change. It will be gone about half the time. I have experimented with this after I thought some of my change had gone missing. I believe they suck it up the vac so they can claim they didn't know. Later empty it out and get the change. Most of the time they don't take it all because you would notice that.

[KMAG100]

As a side note, leave some loose change in your car when you get a wash or oil change. It will be gone about half the time. I have experimented with this after I thought some of my change had gone missing. I believe they suck it up the vac so they can claim they didn't know. Later empty it out and get the change. Most of the time they don't take it all because you would notice that.

 

 

how creative is that.....never would have occurred to me

[coinman_23885]

As a side note, leave some loose change in your car when you get a wash or oil change. It will be gone about half the time. I have experimented with this after I thought some of my change had gone missing. I believe they suck it up the vac so they can claim they didn't know. Later empty it out and get the change. Most of the time they don't take it all because you would notice that.

 

I am really cheap; I don't leave even one cent in my vehicle when it is in for maintenance.

[Walkerfan]

I never leave valuables in my car and I even remove loose quarters, dimes, etc., when in for maintenance. There are just soooo many thieves out there who would love that sort of opportunity. That being said; I hope that you are able to locate the culprit and get your Peace dollar back.

[joeyuk]

I have noticed change missing at car wash and when I pointed it out to management first they denied it. When I told them fine I will file a police report and won't that look good in the local paper. They have a police blotter section. Then they said it must have been vacumed and asked me how much money and gave it to me. I have never been back.

[asdfgh]

I have one of those change blocks in my dash, with sections. I first noticed that my 6 quarters were down to 2. That's when I tried my experiment next time i went back. I actually find it pretty pitiful that someone steals change. I can remember times as a kid I went around getting refundable bottles to try and get a few cents. As an adult I just throw the change in a jug at home. So now I remove all change before going in.

[Nutmeg Coin]

The policeman was pretty thorough with his report. He said the surveillance camera did not show anything at the intake location or the oil change location as he reviewed the two. I tried doing a background search of one of the individuals without turning up anything. Next I went to small claims court to check on their filing procedures, I have found them useful in the past. They are up to $90 for all filings. NY has a graduated system with a $10 filing fee under $1000. https://www.nycourts.gov/courthelp/pdfs/SmallClaimsHandbook.pdf

 

The police report listed the address of the oil change guy as the homeless shelter and the woman who does the vehicle intake, has her address as the car wash.

[bstrauss3]

The problem with this kind of theft - is how do you PROVE it's your coin. "Nah, I bought dat off a buddy at da gun show - real purty right". The stolen item is essentially untraceable.

 

The police took the report so you can file it with your insurance company, they'll list the item on the local hot sheet that pawn brokers and the like are supposed to reference, but that's really all.

[RWB]

I once left the cat in the car at a car wash place. Sadly, it was still there when I got the car back.

 

;(

[Walkerfan]

The problem with this kind of theft - is how do you PROVE it's your coin. "Nah, I bought dat off a buddy at da gun show - real purty right". The stolen item is essentially untraceable.

 

The police took the report so you can file it with your insurance company, they'll list the item on the local hot sheet that pawn brokers and the like are supposed to reference, but that's really all.

 

This is likely true but, if he had pictures of the coin, that would help his cause in possibly identifying it.

[Mark T]

Try turning it in as a claim to insurance as a theft. See what happens.

 

Nothing will happen, auto insurance won’t cover this and neither will homeowners. You need a separate policy for coins.

[Mr. Smith Guesser]

Reading these comments, I'm thinking, 'where do you guys live with all this carwash theft?'. I live in Baltimore, which is arguably one of the most crime-ridden cities in the U.S., and have never had any change or anything stolen out of my car from a carwash. (knocking on wood, of course.)

 

That said, however, my car has been broken into countless times while parked in the city overnight and things taken out of it (change, GPS, etc.) But nothing has ever been missing from taking my car to a carwash or for maintenance. Maybe I've just gotten lucky.

[Mark T]

Where in the car was the coin , was it hidden or in plain site ? Why would you leave something like that in your car ? You could have put the coin in your pocket.

As for loose change, think about it this way. If one person works on 20 cars a day and steals $1 each time that is $50 a week. So you can bet on it that a low life thief will steal your change.

 

[bstrauss3]

Human:

 

I once left the cat in the car at a car wash place. Sadly, it was still there when I got the car back.

 

Cat:

 

I tried to ditch the annoying human caretaker (the fake one, not the one who takes good care of me) at the car wash. Sadly, after the wash he came back.

[thebeav]

I once left the cat in the car at a car wash place. Sadly, it was still there when I got the car back.

 

;(

 

[cpm9ball]

If one person works on 20 cars a day and steals $1 each time that is $50 a week.

 

Umm........$1 x 20 x 5 = How much?

 

Chris

[cpm9ball]

I once left the cat in the car at a car wash place. Sadly, it was still there when I got the car back.

 

;(

 

I wish I had tried this with my ex. I might have saved a bunch of money.

 

Chris

[Nutmeg Coin]

I got a letter from the Small Claims Court today notifying me that the "Splash" car wash/oil change place had defaulted by not answering the filing. At this point the challenge is going to be collecting on the judgment.