$180,000 in Nickles Stolen From Federal Reserve (moved from ATSNN), page 1

posted on Jan, 14 2005 @ 09:10 PM

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Someone actualy stole $180,000 worth of nickles from the Federal reserve today, equating to about 3.6 million nickles total. The FBI are as confused as anyone else is over why someone would actually go through the trouble of stealing, moving, and cashing in that many nickles.

www.msnbc.msn.com
The trail begins at the Federal Reserve building in East Rutherford, N.J.. In mid-December, a large tractor-trailer is loaded up and heads south, bound for the Fed in New Orleans. Sealed in back of the truck is $180,000 worth of newly minted U.S. nickels. They are in 900 bags and weigh nearly 23 tons. That's 3.6 million nickels — and soon they would just disappear.

"Somebody actually went out and stole 3.6 million nickels," says FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela. "I mean, who would ever think that would happen?"

FBI agents and police are baffled over how it happened. The driver, Angel Ricardo Mendoza, a private trucker from Miami, has also disappeared. "He's either a victim or a suspect," says Sgt. Richard Mestre of the Miami-Dade Police Cargo Theft Task Force. "We're not really sure."
So, if someone steals 3.6 million nickels, how does he cash them in without attracting attention? Police say it would have to be done very slowly, in small amounts and at many different places, like grocery store counting machines. And even if he were able to cash in $500 worth of nickels every day, it would still take an entire year.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

Who in their right mind would steal that many nickles? Sure, it's easy because no one expects it, but like the article says, is it really worth the time it takes to cash in that many? Even at $500 a day it takes an entire year to cash it all in, and you would need to go to different banks or else someone may catch on to you. You've also got to figure that more than one person was involved in this so that'll at least cut the profits in half.

[edit on 14-1-2005 by zhangmaster]

Helios Barca

posted on Jan, 14 2005 @ 10:43 PM

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Making 180,000k/year tax free by driving around to different banks and cashing in nickels isn't that bad of a salary.

More likely the person who stole it is planning on visiting a South American bank and exchanging the 180,000 USD for 75,000 USD in forgone currency. I don't think any decent sized bank would have any problem "laundering" 180k USD in nickels. IE I think there is a launder and that it was planned with a way to distribute.

Otto_States

posted on Jan, 15 2005 @ 12:03 AM

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Maybe he/she wanted to sell the truck? A truck in good condition is probably worth a good deal of money.

[edit on 1/15/05 by Otto_States]

DJSpellBound

posted on Jan, 15 2005 @ 11:09 AM

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umm hello we're talking about 23 "tons" of nickels in "900" bags. There had to be at least a good chunk of people involved in this and also well though out. And to even think about laundering to get the 23 tons across seas to another bank would cost an arm and a leg and wouldn't even be worth it.

The truck obviously had to get off loaded somewhere and split up. Maybe between 5 to 6 people or more because just carrying several tons of nickels is a little obvious in a rental.

Since it's been missing out of Rutherland, maybe they did a detour to Atlantic City and they decided to play nickel slots for the next three years..

bleep

posted on Jan, 15 2005 @ 04:12 PM

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I saw this news item on tv and the first thing I thought of what could they be using the nickel for. I did a search on the web and found that the US mint uses an alloy of 25% nickel and 75% copper. Now the question is, what kind of WMD could be derived from this substance?

LL1

posted on Jan, 15 2005 @ 04:32 PM

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DJSpellBound, that's really funny "Atlantic City", but good idea.
Nickle slot machines.
Atlantic City would make for an excellent fence/laundering facility,
along with scrap metal places which pay by the pound.