The E-Sylum:  Volume 8, Number 7, February 13, 2005, Article 24

THATSA LOTTA NICKELS

The Florida Sun-Sentinel published a story on February
5, 2005 with an answer to the mystery of where a load of
stolen U.S. nickels ended up.

"Police officers on Friday dug up some unusual back-yard
buried treasure -- about three million stolen nickels that never
made it to the Federal Reserve in New Orleans.

Miami-Dade police came across the nicked nickels, worth
about $180,000, at a home in the Redlands area of southwest
Miami-Dade. They were still in Federal Reserve bags, in a
wooden box, covered with a thick plastic tarp and buried
about four feet deep.

"We think most of them are there," said Judy Orihuela,
spokeswoman for the FBI, which is investigating the theft.
"There's probably going to be a few missing."

The nickel caper began on Dec. 17 when truck driver
Angel Ricardo Mendoza picked up the coins at the
Federal Reserve facility in New Jersey.

Mendoza, who worked for a private trucking contractor,
vanished with the 45,000 pounds of silvery loot. A few
days later, the truck and trailer turned up at a Fort Pierce
truck stop, but the bags of nickels had disappeared, along
with Mendoza.

Friday morning, Miami-Dade police officers and DEA
agents looking for a hydroponics lab at a home in southwest
Miami-Dade, stumbled upon a cooler and a bucket full of
nickels.

"That's what made the little light go off," Orihuela said.

Scanning the back yard with metal detectors, investigators
found the entire load of nickels."

"However, there was no sign of Mendoza, who is a suspect
in the coin heist. Investigators think he may have left the
country."

To read the full story, see: Full Story

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

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