The E-Sylum:  Volume 9, Number 49, December 3, 2006, Article 34

MANLEY GOLD BAR THIEF SENTENCED

On November 29th the Associated Press reported that "A house painter
was sentenced Tuesday to six months in jail for stealing a 4-pound
gold bar from NBA agent Dwight Manley's home and selling it to a coin
dealer.

An Orange County Superior Court judge also sentenced Lawrence Wach to
three years probation after he pleaded guilty to burglary, grand theft
and petty theft of a pawn broker.

Wach was also ordered to have no contact with Manley nor the dealer
who bought the bar in exchange for $9,500 and 40 ounces of gold."

"The bar, made during the California Gold Rush, was valued at about
$500,000 and was stolen from Manley's home nearly a year ago while
Wach was working there, police said."

To read the entire article, see: Full Story

[The article notes that the painter is repaying the dealer he sold
the bar to.  Word around the hobby is that the dealer was in negotiations
to resell it for a six-figure markup to another dealer who was expecting
to add his own six-figure markup before placing the bar with a client.
By "six-figure" we're not including the numbers to the right of the
decimal point.

If such a deal had come to pass, but one can't help but wonder who
would be seen as the biggest thief.  Everyone has to make a living and
in a free society there's no law against profiting to the greatest
extent the market will bear.  Numismatic ethics isn't our purview here,
but four-pound gold bars don't just haul themselves up from the bottom
of the ocean and land in a painter's lunchbucket every day.  Didn't the
deal smell just a teensy bit from the get-go?  -Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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