Star Wars Toys Dropped on Road Along with Safe
A co-worked recently informed me of a news story that slipped under my radar. This last Friday in the town that I’m now calling home, Fremont California, an abandoned safe was dropped off the back of a truck along with about seventy sealed Star Wars toys. It looks like some thieves had stolen this safe, got what they wanted out of it, and just threw out the rest. From the Fremont Argus:
Nearly 70 collectible Star Wars action figures were strewn about the Glenmoor neighborhood Friday morning when thieves dropped a 5-foot safe off the back of their truck and left it in the middle of the road, Detective Bill Veteran said.
Police on Friday still were trying to determine who owned the safe and how it got to Lombard Street, the detective said. The safe looked like it had been pried open and dumped by thieves, Veteran said.
This safe was so big that they needed a crane to help get this thing off the road. As of the printing of this story, no one knew whose safe it was. I’m guessing some Star Wars collector who also happens to have some cash. I mean, this would have to be one hell of a heist in order to steal a safe this big. I just hope for the sake of the collector he/she had their items insured.
The most important detail that concerned me as a collector the most was just which toys were they? This wouldn’t be that much of a loss if it was a bunch of Jar Jar figures or something, but if it was AFA certified figures from the first Kenner wave that would be another story. We would be talking thousands of dollars worth of figures then. I wrote to Ben Aguirre, the reporter who covered the story, and this was what he said:
I tried to get specifics about the toys (year, models, etc.) but it
was not documented in the report. Also, I suspect those are details
that police would withhold simply because the owner would need to be
able to identify what he had in order to get them back.
It’s too bad that there isn’t any information available right now. I can only imagine finding this and “accidentally” forgetting to tell the police about the Star Wars figures. Seriously though, I can feel for the collector. If he or she is insured they’ll get their money back, but if this stuff is damaged or lost then there goes any sentimental attachment they might have had for it, plus they’ll have to go through the process of trying to get their hands on new copies which might be difficult in and of itself. Then you have to factor in that when the thieves were stealing your stuff they were totally calling you a geek. Now, that’s rough.
toy, toy collecting, theft, crime, news
April 24th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
Paul, we know it was you stole them… there’s no need to be shy about it.
April 24th, 2007 at 8:05 pm
hehe dave. Yeah me and the buddies had this giant cat burglar scheme. You should have seen how i got past the laser defenses!
April 24th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
Paul, who in their right minds would abandon “Star Wars” toys?! I, personally, would have gone back for those and left the cash! It oughta be a felony just to leave “Star Wars” toys like that!
April 25th, 2007 at 4:41 am
Hell, if the lost toys were rare vintages, insurance alone won’t be enough. Think about all the work that goes into procuring them. I’ll totally flip if I were the collector.
April 25th, 2007 at 9:31 am
If Paul had pulled the heist, the money would have been on the ground and the collectibles missing
April 25th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
Pics or it didn’t happen, clearly.
April 26th, 2007 at 8:15 am
Sounds like the making of Ocean’s 14.
April 26th, 2007 at 10:30 am
what a maroon…if I were a thief, stole a safe and ran across some weird stuff which I could not appraise…just effing keep it. If it were important enough to store in a safe it most likely has some value.
My guess is that the owner was on vacation at the time, and the people who took it knew him. CSI here I come.
April 26th, 2007 at 10:48 am
It is a shame people here would even joke about not reporting the find. It is property stolen from someone else. Why wouldn’t your first instinct be to try and help someone reclaim some of their property from what was probably a traumatic event?
April 26th, 2007 at 11:37 am
me… pics or it didn’t happen? Uh, it was reported in the newspaper, there is an open investigation going on with the local police department.
Aidan, thanks for visiting, but get a sense of humor. Really.
Dumb Theif… that’s what I thought.
April 29th, 2007 at 8:36 am
I’d like to see how big the safe is if they allegedly had to use a crane to move it. Wow.
May 5th, 2007 at 10:26 pm
[...] Speaking of Star Wars toys, a safe containing 70 unopened Star Wars toys was recently dropped off a truck in the middle of the road in Fremont, California. tags: Star Wars (T) , Gobler Toys (T) , toys (T) , The Force (T) , Star Wars toys (T) , action figure (T) [...]
May 5th, 2007 at 11:30 pm
[...] Speaking of Star Wars toys, a safe containing 70 unopened Star Wars toys was recently dropped off a truck in the middle of the road in Fremont, California. [...]