Storage facility find yields 40,000 stolen Bluey coins
Alex Mitchell |
More than 40,000 limited-edition Bluey coins have been recovered from a self-storage facility after they were stolen months earlier.
Three people have been charged over the July incident, in which a 500kg pallet containing 63,000 of the coins was taken from a secure storage facility.
Police made a major breakthrough in the case on Tuesday, recovering 40,061 of the coins when searching a self-storage facility in Wentworthville, in Sydney’s west.
They had made an arrest earlier that day, charging a 27-year-old woman investigators allege drove two people to the break-in.
It was the third arrest under Strike Force Bandit, which carries the same name as the father of the show’s titular blue heeler.
The coins vanished from a western Sydney warehouse on July 12.
They had a face value of $1, but were selling online for much more due to the immense popularity of the children’s TV cartoon.
The collector’s item coins were selling for $10 online, leading police to estimate the haul was worth more than $600,000.
Police raided a western Sydney property on July 31 and recovered 189 of the unreleased coins, but discovered the person selling them was a legitimate coin collector who had innocently come into their possession.
Unfortunately for the collector, who police said paid about $1.50 for each coin, authorities seized his stash as proceeds of crime.
Bluey has become a global phenomenon after first airing in Australia on the ABC in 2018.
It follows the adventures of a young dog and her family living in suburban Brisbane.
AAP