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Tag: stolen

  • Stradivarius Thieves Arrested, $6M Violin Recovered

    A rare Stradivarius violin stolen on Jan. 27 has been recovered in Milwaukee. The instrument, crafted by Antonio Stradivari in 1715, is valued at $6 million dollars.

    Three individuals, described only as a 36 year old man, a 41 year old man, and a 32 year old woman were arrested Monday. They had stolen the violin from Frank Almond, concertmaster of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, when Almond was walking to his car after performing at Luther College. According to Almond’s statement, an assailant approached him, tased him, took the instrument, and then jumped into a maroon Chrysler van.

    After the arrests, the violin remained missing for a further two days until it was located in a suitcase in the attic of a Milwaukee residence. A reward of $100,000 had been offered for information leading to the instrument’s return.

    One of the accused is reported to have an art theft conviction. “It appears we had a local criminal who had an interest in art theft and was smart enough to develop a plan for a robbery,” Police Chief Edward Flynn said. “Beyond that, we don’t know what his motive was.”

    Flynn has also noted that, while the violin was worth a lot of money, it might have been tough for the thieves to convert it to cash: “Clearly . . . this is not something that can easily be disposed of at some future date. It’ll never be valuable for a thief. It’s only valuable for a collector. It’s only valuable to a collector if it can be played, and it can’t be played if it’s known to be stolen,” the chief said.

    Stradivari (1644-1737) was an Italian luthier who produced over 1,100 instruments in his career, of which approximately 650 survive. He is best known in popular culture for his violins. This particular violin is known as the “Lipinski Stradivarius” for having been once owned by Polish violinist Karol Lipinski. It had originally been commissioned by Giuseppe Tartini, who wanted an instrument worthy of his “Devil’s Trill” sonata. The Lipinski has changed hands several times, including a sale in 1962 for $19,000. It is currently owned by an anonymous individual, but has been on loan to the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra since 2008.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • $80,000 Stolen Dogs Result In Police Investigation

    Imagine coming home from ringing in the New Year at a party and finding out that your dog has been stolen. Also gone are more than a dozen puppies. To make matters worse, these beloved animals happen to be worth thousands of dollars. This is the real-life nightmare being experienced by owner Marcelo Cicuta. Police believe that while Cicuta and his mother were at a friend’s kennel on New Year’s Eve, thieves snuck in and carried the animals away in pillow cases.

    Among the missing are El Che, a five-year-old prized French bulldog who won awards at both the French Bulldog Club of America National Specialty Show and Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. But according to Cicuta, El Che wasn’t just for show; he was a beloved companion.

    The animal kidnappers also grabbed fifteen French bulldog puppies, ranging in age from sixteen to twenty-seven days old. This is especially worrying to the dog owner as the puppies are so very young. “They need their mothers. They need milk from their mother, or any mother for survival.” Without the necessary care, the puppies could die.

    Officer Kenia Reyes, spokeswoman for the Miami police, has not ruled out the possibility that the person or persons responsible knew very well that El Che was a champion show dog and that all the dogs were very valuable. According to the police report, El Che is valued at $50,000 and the young French bulldog puppies at $30,000. It seems hard to fathom that animals can be worth so much, but certain breeds, especially show dogs, are highly valued. In fact, French bulldogs are reportedly the third most stolen of all dogs. They can then be sold for a couple thousand dollars.

    Cicuta hopes that his French bulldog and puppies can be recovered before this is their unfortunate fate. In the meantime, Miami law enforcement are said to be aggressively seeking leads that can determine who is responsible for this crime.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Alligator Stolen by Being Crammed Under T-Shirt

    A man in West Virginia stole a baby alligator by smuggling it under his t-shirt.

    There’s a lot to worry about in that sentence given that gators are native neither to the Mountain State nor to t-shirts, so let’s set the scene: A man entered a pet shop in Beckley, W. Va., and asked about food for an alligator he’d purchased previously. When the attendant went to see about the gator chow, the man quickly snuck back to where the gators were kept, pulled one from its terrarium, stuffed it up his shirt, and hurried out.

    While there are more daring—and certainly more criminally glorious way to commit theft—shoving an alligator up your shirt seems particularly fraught with danger. Even so, the man made it out the door undetected.

    In fact, the theft was not noticed until well afterward, when employee Anthony Williams went to feed the reptile, didn’t see it, realized it wasn’t hiding under a rock, and reviewed surveillance footage. The thief, a regular customer, was shown on camera walking with a squirming bulge in his shirt from the area of the store where the animal had been kept.

    “Doesn’t seem like the safest thing to do,” said Williams. “I’m just shocked. Every business has to deal with shoplifting, but I would just would not expect an alligator to be shoplifted.”

    Williams was a bit skeptical that hiding a gator under one’s clothing was the smartest way to smuggle. “I mean, I can imagine the boy probably got bit on the way out,” Williams said. “It’s just an awful strange thing to do.”

    The animal was worth $300, so maybe a nip or two (as always, sorry for the puns) was worth it.

    And, for graphic effect, imagine the following being confined against its will under a t-shirt:

  • Dr. Phil’s Stolen Car Has Been Found

    Dr. Phil’s Stolen Car Has Been Found

    The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has told the Los Angeles Times that Dr. Phil McGraw’s stolen car has been recovered.

    Dr. Phil, who is known for his Oprah spin-off pop-psychology TV show, had his ’57 Chevy stolen back at the end of August. The car was stolen from a Burbank auto shop where it was having work done on its transmission. The thieves broke through a roll-up door to get inside the shop.

    At the time, Dr. Phil estimated that the two-door convertible is worth around $100,000. The car is black, with white and silver trim and a red leather interior. Police stated that the car had minor body damage, but was otherwise in good condition.

    The L.A. Times has stated that a Taskforce for Regional Autotheft Prevention investigation has led to the recovery of 13 vintage cars in addition to Dr. Phil’s. The vehicles’ VIN numbers had been changed to hide that they had been stolen, and five of them are still being identified. Also, “numerous” arrests have been made in connection with the stolen cars.

    The location of the stolen vehicles has not been revealed, and Dr. Phil himself has not released a statement on the matter.

  • Dr. Phil’s Car Stolen From Repair Shop

    Dr. Phil’s Car Stolen From Repair Shop

    Who knew Dr. Phil was a car collector? The celebrity pop psychologist this week had his classic ’57 Chevy stolen from a car shop where it was being repaired. TMZ is reporting that the car was in the Burbank repair shop having transmission work done.

    TMZ states that the car, a two-door convertible ’57 Chevy, is worth $100,000. Though similar to the car in the image to the right, Dr. Phil’s car is black with white and silver trim and a red leather interior. The car thieves smashed through a roll-up door to get inside the shop. Dr. Phil called police, and they are handling the theft, as much as the Burbank police can, I suppose.

    In a remarkable collision of Today’s top stories, Terrell Owens, who was just released into free agency by the Seattle Seahawks, made an embarrassing appearance on Dr. Phil’s show. Owens was confronted by the mothers of some of his children with allegations that he skipped out on child support payments and was generally absent from the lives of his progeny.

    Dr. Phil, whose full name is Phillip Calvin McGraw, has not commented publicly on the theft. The latest blog post on the Dr. Phil blog is by his wife Robin, who praises the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority for its charity work.

    (Photo courtesy Kobac via Wikimedia Commons)

  • Nazi Art Theft Material Discovered

    During World War ll, Adolf Hitler commanded agents to raid and loot European countries, looking for precious metals, currency, jewelry, and artwork. While most of the items were recovered by the Allies after the war ended, some of them were never seen again.

    The Monument Mens Foundation For The Preservation Of Art–which was formed by Robert M. Edsel to help Allied forces protect cultural artifacts during the war–has donated several mysterious items to the U.S. National Archives which until now have been privately held and are related to the art thefts made by Hitler’s men.

    Not wanting to comment too much on the unveiling, Archivist David S. Ferriero says the National Archives will announce “a significant discovery which will allow for a more complete view of Hitler’s premeditated theft of art and other cultural treasures,” this morning in a press conference, which will be attended by Edsel.

    The art thefts committed during the war have long been a topic of fascination to many, partly because of the idea that there are treasures hidden out there somewhere, waiting to be found. Actor George Clooney is writing and will star in a film about the events called “Monuments Men“, which is only in the beginning stages, is based on a book called “The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History,” by Robert M. Edsel.

    In 2007, the National Archives announced they had in their possession two leather-bound photo albums which documented several items of artwork stolen by Hitler.

    Once word spread that new items have been found, the social media world is abuzz.

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  • Police Break Down Wrong Door Hunting iPhone

    A recent burglary victim near Sherwood, Nottingham attempted to track his stolen iPhone with Apple’s Find My iPhone app on his iPad, only to have police bust into the wrong apartment. Maybe Robin Hood took it.

    According to The Telegraph, after the owner of the stolen phone tracked it via GPS, police were sent to the wrong vacant apartment, leaving landlord Robert Kerr with a broken door. Kerr states, “how accurate are these trackers? I’m unsure whether they can pinpoint a phone to a specific house,” adding “the victim of the burglary has almost made me a victim by saying the phone was in my house when it was not.” Kerr is pissed. But Nottingham police have stated that they are not responsible for the cost of the door, as they’d “reasonably believed” that the iPhone and suspect were in the apartment they were directed to, adding that residents had tipped them off that someone appeared to have been inside the typically abandoned building.

    The Telegraph also mentioned that some sort of phone tracking expert claims that while lost phone apps are impressive, they cannot pinpoint a single room in a densely built-up locale. In a review of some of the more popular phone-tracking apps, it was found that the Find My iPhone app was able to track a phone to a specific parking space in the lot at a Home Depot. Still, in the same review, the app wasn’t able to track a phone in a dense suburban neighborhood, putting the blue dot on the tracking map half a block away from the phone’s actual location.

    Basically, phone-tracking apps can be useful in certain situations and environments, but are not a definitive fix for finding lost devices. Kerr has written to the Independent Police Complaints Commission in his country, in an attempt to recover the nearly £500 he’d paid for a new door. There is no mention of whether or not the phone in question has ever been recovered.

    In related news, last December the Find My iPhone app was able to assist porn actress Jesse Jane in successfully tracking her stolen iPhone.