Local gold buyer beaten, robbed of $65,000!

[pennypicker]

I live in a somewhat isolated desert city 70 miles outside of Los Angeles with a population of 115,000. It used to be a pleasant, quiet, working-class town but all changed during the housing boom from '02 to '07. The rapidly increasing values of homes in the Los Angeles basin forced thousands to move to our fair city to find affordable housing. But with them came several thousand gang members as well. Crime has dramatically increased, graffiti is everywhere, burglaries have doubled in the last year, and our county is #2 in the whole country in Identity theft. Last month we had an exchange of gunfire between Hispanic gangs at our local Wal Mart parking lot. Days later our paper stated that Wal mart corporate officials said our Wal Mart was the 7th most dangerous out of 3800+ stores in the U.S. based on the incidence of violent crimes. And just three days ago the paper said a group of kids from our local high-school were walking home and a car with Hispanic gang members inside drove by and fired one shot from a shot gun into the group. Police learned they were aiming at a kid who had earlier refused to join their gang!

The median home price in my city in '02 was $125K. It peaked at a ridiculous $375K in '07 and has collapsed to $115K today. As a result thousands bailed from their houses and foreclosures now litter the landscape. All these empty homes have now created a new type of crime in which people break into the homes, replace the locks and advertise a home as being for rent on craigslist. Then they wait until a desperate family, usually hard working immigrants with limited English, come to see the home. They then talk the family into giving them cash up front to move in. Of course the family will move in only later to get a knock on the door from the bank wanting to know why they are living in the home.

Criminals also use these empty houses for many other types of crime including the one which happened to a local coin buyer recently. For many years now we have had three people who run regular adds in the paper to buy coins, gold, silver, etc. One owns the local coin shop and the other two are private collectors. A few weeks ago one of the private collectors, who I've dealt with over the years, received a call from a person wanting to sell some gold and silver bars. The caller represented himself as a disabled senior citizen and he and his wife wanted to sell their bars but didn't want to leave the house with them as they were afraid to do so in our city. Over the phone they agreed of a price of $65K and the buyer agreed to come to their home. The senior couple also would only deal in cash since the buyer was a private party and not a retail coin shop.

So the private buyer calls back to verify the phone#, picks up 65K at the bank and heads to their home. When he arrives the home has a nice appearance so he leaves the money in a brief case in his trunk and knocks on the door. When the door opens he is immediately grabbed, pulled into the home and thrown to the floor. Three masked men then tie him to a chair and pistol whip him asking for the money. He says he decided not to bring it yet and first wanted to physically see the bars. So they pistol whip him until his nose is shattered and eye socket broken. They grab his keys and find the money and drive off in his car leaving him tied to the chair. The robbers were speaking Spanish to each other I might add.

Turns out the robbers simply broke into a recently foreclosed home in a nice neighborhood. Used a disposable cell phone to call the buyer and waited for his arrival. I obtained all this information from the local coin shop owner who is friends with the victim and had visited him in the hospital. The victim might also lose one eye.

So much for the American dream in my (once) fair city.

[Neckro]

Why in the hell would anyone in their right mind go to a strangers house with 65k in the first place? He helped facilitate the situation with his ignorance.

[Coppercrazy]

that comes with the territory if youre buying PMs from classified want ads...beware! I hope they catch those scumbags!

[pennypicker]

Why in the hell would anyone in their right mind go to a strangers house with 65k in the first place? He helped facilitate the situation with his ignorance.

I absolutely agree with you. This buyer does carry a concealed handgun at all times but in this instance he had no change to use it. He had his clip board and calculator in his hands as the door opened.

[Somnophore]

If I had 65k with me I'd have my hand on my gun at all times! I agree was a bit foolish but it's just an error of judgement, lucky they didn't kill him.

[Neckro]

Not only did he supply them with 65k, a car, and a weapon. Could've been completely avoided. Hell, I get jumpy deal with a few 100' in my town.

[AGgressive Metal]

I would have an armed buddy waiting in the car.

[NotABigDeal]

So many things were done SO incorrectly.... It doesn't make the robbery right, but the victim did nothing to prevent it.

Deal