Author: Chris Wuensch

Thieves Target Valuable Works of Art and Substantial Matchbox Car Collection

German artist Michael Fischer-Art awoke recently to a rude surprise with the discovery that burglars had targeted his Leipzig studio, making off with a bounty of art and a substantial Matchbox car collection in the process.

Thieves entered the former machine hall of the old briquette factory in Borna in the overnight hours of March 2023, stealing nine paintings worth an estimated five figures. The criminals took a painting from each of his creative periods, which Fischer-Art describes as not a coincidence.

Adding ultimate insult-to-injury is that the thieves also motored off with Fischer-Art’s extensive Matchbox collection, which numbered more than 1,800 diecast strong.

As Fischer-Art put it via TAG24:

“It’s as if a piece of my heart had been ripped out. I’ve had the oldest cars for 51 years, they survived two divorces, but not Borna-Nord …”

Protect your collection today via Insure Your Collection.

Police Breakup Southern California Lego Theft Ring

If you’re going to feed your Lego fandom, we highly recommend that you go about it the legal way.

A pair of Long Beach residents learned a hard lesson in early June when they were arrested for allegedly stealing thousands of Lego sets from retail outlets in Southern California .

All totaled, Richard Siegel, 71, and Blanca Gudino, 39, swiped more than 2,800 boxes of Legos ranging in value from $20 to $1,000.

The brick castle began to collapase when Gudino initially appeared on the police’s radar for stealing Lego sets from a San Pedro shop in December. Police sprang into action in June after the genius Gudino hit the same shop’s Lakewood and Torrance locations.

Rather than assemble them one-by-one, the duo was, instead, reselling them online. The theft ring was so profitable that police even had to turn away interested buyers who showed up while the authorities were performing their search.

We suggest that as punishment, they should be made to walk barefoot across a floor covered in Lego bricks.

Indulge your Lego fandom the legal way here via hobbyDB!

Protect Your Pokemon Cards From…the Japanese Yakuza

If Pokemon has taught us anything since its inception nearly three decades ago, it’s that anyone will go to great lengths to add Pikachu and friends to their collection.

That includes the notorious Japanese organized crime syndicate the Yakuza.

Keita Saito, a lieutenant in the Yakuza’s Takinogawa family, was arrested recently in connection with an alleged home invasion. Among the 29 items targeted were 25 highly valuable Pokemon cards.

While we don’t necessarily think you have much to fear from the Yakuza, card theft is a real thing and arguably on the rise. That makes it a great idea to insure your valuable Pokemon cards. Protect yourself today with companies such as Sure insurance.

Earthquake Rattles Czech Diecast Museum

Tragedy can strike without warning nor regard as Eduard Pařízek and the Museum of Metal Models recently discovered the hard way.

The museum located in Týniště nad Orlicí sustained major damages as a result of a short, but powerful, earthquake on June 27 that shook the Czech city.

It’s estimated that Pařízek – who began amassing his collection of 1:43 and 1:64 scale models some 50 years ago – saw roughly a third of his 6,000-car exhibition damaged in the temblor.

Here some more and after shots –

Museum of Metal Models

Read more about the incident and Pařízek’s collection here.