Philadelphia- $200,000 worth of dimes stolen- Image source New York Post
Police in Philadelphia have provided an updated estimate regarding a theft that occurred on Thursday morning, involving the theft of a significant amount of dimes from a parked truck in Northeast Philadelphia.
The updated estimate indicates that approximately $200,000 worth of dimes, equivalent to 2 million dime coins, were stolen from the truck.
The incident occurred overnight in a Walmart parking lot located in the 4300 block of Byberry Road, with the thieves breaking into a trailer that contained hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of dimes. The truck was reported to have contained a total of $750,000 worth of dimes.
Initially, investigators estimated that a theft of at least $100,000 worth of dimes had occurred. However, the estimate was revised on Friday to $200,000. The truck carrying the dimes was en route to Florida from the Mint located in Old City, Philadelphia.
The driver had picked up the coins from the mint on Wednesday and had driven to Northeast Philadelphia, where he resides.
He parked the trailer in a parking lot and went home to rest. It is unclear if the driver will face charges, but another driver mentioned that leaving a trailer unattended is not a common practice.
The dimes scattered across the parking lot of a Walmart near Woodhaven Road. Police are currently searching for a group of “10 or more males” dressed in black clothing, as well as a white Chrysler 300 pickup truck with tinted windows.
While the police do not believe the driver was targeted and he has been interviewed by detectives, they stated that cargo thefts are common in the area.
Captain John Ryan noted that there have been numerous incidents of theft involving items such as lamb, chicken, TVs, refrigerators, and alcohol in Northeast Philadelphia and South Philadelphia in recent months.
Cleaning up the aftermath of the theft took crews hours of work, considering that there were approximately 7.5 million coins to collect, totaling $750,000 worth of dimes.
According to the U.S. Mint website, a dime weighs 2.268 grams, so the stolen 2 million dimes would have amounted to about 10,000 pounds or five tons of weight.
“This is a significant amount of weight to move, so it would have required a considerable amount of labor,” commented Captain Ryan.
The incident has shocked the neighborhood, with residents expressing disbelief and concern about the increasing prevalence of theft.
Police are currently reviewing surveillance footage in hopes of identifying the individuals who broke into the trailer, but no arrests have been made yet.
The investigation is ongoing.
