A black bear walked into a New Hampshire house through an open door, ate two pears and a bunch of grapes, took a drink from the family fishbowl and grabbed a stuffed bear on its way out the door.
Mary Beth Parkinson said the bear apparently took advantage of the open outside door to get into her kitchen Tuesday in Laconia, about 20 miles north of Concord. She thinks the garage door going up scared the bear enough that it fled the house.
Courtesy of Huffingtonpost.com
Hampshire Police are appealing for information after 80 Star Wars figures – thought to be worth in the region of £20,000 – were stolen from a house in Knowle Village near Fareham. According to a checklist kept by the victim, he had a number of extremely rare figures including the unfortunately named ‘Yak Face’, Darth Vader with ‘telescoping lightsaber’, a Jawa with its original vinyl cape and ‘Blue Snaggletooth’. These figures alone are worth several hundred pounds and a Yak Face recently sold at Vectis Auctions for £280.
The items – which also included 500 DVDs and limited edition items – were stolen while the owner was away between 3pm on Friday, 13th July and 12.30pm on Sunday, 15th July. Detective constable Craig Rainsley said: “This burglary involves the theft of science fiction collectables which are very identifiable.
Courtesy of Collectors Club of Great Britain
Model car collectors in Bridgwater are being urged to be on the lookout after a collection worth £3,000 was stolen. The 143 scale die-cast models were taken during a break-in in South Road, Taunton, between August 23-26. The collection includes 1:43 scale models with many well-known names such as Corgi, Dinky and foreign makes. The cars date back to the 1960s and 1970s. Many were unboxed but in a mint condition.
A brief case, TV, camera, jewellery and other items were also taken.
Courtesy of Bridgwater Mercury
A Dinky toy fanatic has had his priceless collection stolen from his home. Roger Molineux has collected Dinky Toys all his life and owns a total of over 50 of the miniature vehicles which were all in mint condition and in their original boxes. A burglar broke into the Macclesfield home on September 11 and took seven of the vehicles. The stolen vehicles are two grey Rolls Royce models; an electric blue “Ever Ready Batteries” commercial van, and a red “Heinz” commercial van; a small creme Chevolet car; a pale green Land Rover and a blue “Corgi Toy Hillman Husky”. “They have so much sentimental value to me,” said Roger. “The toys are always kept in a box in my room.
“I don’t know why they chose to take them, they are not on view for all to see. I keep the dinky toys in my room.” Roger said that he returned from work at 10.30pm to find a glass panel in the front door had been smashed. Along with the dinky toys, £200 in cash was stolen from the bedroom.
Courtesy of Macclesfield Express
An 85-year-old man had his collection of model trains stolen while he was in hospital. The man started his collection in 1977 and several trains, wagons and carriages were stolen by thieves who broke into his shed. He was in hospital from May 9-July 9 and discovered the break-in at his home in Ninnings Road, Chalfont St Peter, when he returned home from hospital.
Among the items stolen are a GNR Green Locomotive, a Wren Railway engine and a model of the Flying Scotsman. Also missing is a black plastic dustbin which may have been taken to carry the stolen property.
Courtesy of Bucks Free Press
A burglary took place at a property where 24 pieces of valuable model train equipment was stolen. The incident took place in The Street, Pakenham, some time between Monday March 19 and Wednesday March 21.
Offenders managed to open a hatch and climb into the shed, exiting via a double glazed window.
Courtesy of EADT24
Overnight on Wednesday 15 June 2011, the Conwy Valley Railway Museum in Betws-y-Coed was broken into. The thieves disabled the three CCTV cameras by spraying over the lenses. They took more than £30,000 pounds worth of model railway engines and carriages. The thieves appeared to know what they were doing and police believe this was a targeted raid which has hit the small family-run business hard. They stole a massive amount of stock – around 180 items in all. Ninety percent of which was standard Hornby models many of which are mass produced and very hard to trace.
But the thieves also took seven Basset Lowke “0” gauge locomotives which are the more valuable engines. These are worth more almost £800 each. They also took two super model LGB locomotives valued at more than £2,000 each. Each of these models has an individual serial number which makes them easily identifiable. However the thieves left behind the boxes and the instruction manuals which will make the engines very hard to sell on legitimately. This isn’t an isolated incident. There was a similar burglary in Kent in May and North Wales Police has been liaising with officers there. They believe all the items may well be heading for foreign markets in Europe but would urge anyone who may have been offered anything similar for sale or seen them advertised to get in touch. Earlier in the year the museum and shop had been featured on the programme Great British Railway Journeys. There is a suggestion that the thieves may have been seen the stock etc on there and decided to carry out the theft.
Courtesy of the BBC
A model rail enthusiast has been left devastated after metal thieves stole the train he had been building for six months. Mr Smith, 70, had spent hundreds of hours recreating a five-foot-long model of a Great Western Dean goods engine. He had almost completed it when raiders forced their way into his garage and stole the miniature steam locomotive for its copper and brass parts. Mr Smith, of Bray Close, Horton Bank Top, Bradford, said: “I started building it last August and must have put 700 or 800 hours work into it.
I was only about a fortnight away from finishing it. “I kept the model on a stand in the garage next to the house. When I got up this morning I found the locks to the garage had been forced and the train had gone. All that was left was the chassis and wheels. “It had a copper boiler and copper and brass parts. It must have been taken by metal thieves. The copper boiler itself is worth £4,000 to £4,500, but no doubt they will take it to a scrapyard and get not very much for it. I am just devastated.”
Courtesy of the Telegraph & Argus
Following a burglary where more than 100 collectable toys were stolen from a house in Potters Bar, police are appealing for witnesses. On June 28, between 1pm and 4pm, the offenders forced open the door of a garage in Willow Way.
They stole a blue Otis bag which contained model buses, and a white box containing a number of Dinky toys.
Courtesy of the Times Series
A 33-year-old man is accused of stealing $20,000 in model trains and selling the collectibles for merely $700 online.
Eric Malm was arrested Wednesday and charged with burglary, dealing in stolen property and violating his felony drug offender probation. The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office said Malm stole the trains from a retiree’s home in Aripeka and sold them by placing an ad online. Malm knew the victim, the report states.
Courtesy of the Tampa Bay Times
