A man is accused of stealing more than $600,000 worth of unreleased limited edition Bluey coins, featuring the beloved Australian children’s cartoon character, and selling them online.
Produced by the Royal Australian Mint, the “Dollarbuck” $1 coins, which featured an image of Bluey chasing a balloon, were set to be released into general circulation in September.
However, that day came early after they were allegedly looted from a Sydney warehouse and sold for profit.
Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today
Robbery and Serious Crime Squad commander Detective Superintendent Joesph Doueihi said police believe the man, and two others, moved the coins to another location to offload them.
Just hours later, the coins were listed and sold online for anywhere up to $10 each.
In true Bluey fashion, Strike Force “Bandit” was launched as detectives worked to track down those responsible.
Doueihi said it was a “bingo moment” when detectives located some of the stolen coins through a legitimate coin collector, who had advertised the coins online after “innocently” coming into their possession.
He added police “strongly believe” some of the coins “have been circulated back into the community” and were in general use.
Doueihi said it was not clear exactly how much the stolen coins were sold for.
“We don’t know what he sold them for, but we know that as soon as they were stolen, they were offloaded almost immediately.”
Police searched a home in Sefton on July 31 and found 189 “Dollarbucks” and seized electronics.
On Wednesday, detectives searched a home in Westmead and arrested a 47-year-old man.
He was charged with three counts of break, enter and commit serious indictable offence.
He faced Parramatta Local Court on Wednesday and was refused bail.
The Royal Australian Mint launched its Bluey coin collection earlier this year when it released the eagerly awaited “Dollarbuck” $1 coins for collectors and keen fans.
Collector coins featured colour images of Bluey, the entire Heeler family, and Bluey and Bingo dressed up as the Grannies.
Meanwhile, the stolen coins were solely gold-coloured, as they were intended for everyday use, Doueihi said.
Luckily for those who may have ended up with one in their pocket, police are not asking people to hand in the coins.
“If you have information where bulk quantities of coins are stored, we ask you contact police as soon as possible,” Doueihi said.
Doueihi said police believe the other men allegedly involved would be identified and arrested in the near future.
The Australian cartoon’s popularity was not lost on police, who slammed the theft as an act that “deprived a lot of young children and members of the community from accessing them”.
“If the producers decide to make an episode on this, that would be fine,” Doueihi joked.
Investigations continue.
Anyone with information that may help investigators is asked to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or report online via nsw.crimestoppers.com.au.
Police have charged an Australian warehouse worker who is believed to have stolen more than A$600,000 (£309,000) worth of limited-edition coins based on the hit children’s television show Bluey.
Demand for the collectable currency was huge when it went on sale in June this year, with producers Royal Australian Mint diverting all its phone lines to the sales centre on launch day, citing “Blueymania”.
Police allege the coins were sold online, hours after they were stolen from the back of a truck at the warehouse where the accused worked.
They were due to be transported to the mint at the time of the alleged theft, police said.
According to the authorities, they have recovered around 1,000 coins and believe that the rest are in general circulation.
On Wednesday, 47-year-old Steven John Neilson was arrested after a raid on a home and charged with three counts of breaking and entering.
Mr Neilson was denied bail when he appeared in Parramatta Court.
He is accused of stealing 64,000 unreleased, limited-edition A$1 coins from a warehouse in the Sydney suburb of Wetherill Park in June, according to “Strike Force Bandit”, a special unit police set up to investigate the theft and named after Bandit who is Bluey's father in the show.
The collection of three $1 coloured coins was branded as Dollarbucks – the way that money is often referred to in the cartoon.
Detective Superintendent Joseph Doueihi told reporters at a news conference he was not initially aware of the show’s popularity.
“The theft of these coins have deprived a lot of young children and members of the community from having access to these coins, so we’re doing our absolute best to try to recover these coins and put them back into circulation.”
Police say the man worked at the warehouse and stole the coins, which weighed 500 kilograms (1102 lb), from the back of a truck, before selling them online within hours. Police are looking for two male accomplices.
He appealed for anyone with information about large stashes of coins to contact the police.
Bluey is made by Brisbane-based animation firm Ludo with BBC Studios and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
It follows the daily lives of the Heeler family of dogs and since first broadcasting in Australia in 2018 it has become a global phenomenon, broadcast in more than 60 countries including the UK, the US and China.
It was streamed for more than 20 billion minutes on Disney+ in the US last year, putting it in the country's top 10 streaming programmes for minutes viewed.
There are more than 150 episodes of Bluey across three seasons.
