hiya folks

I have a very funny story for all of you today.

You folks remember when my warehouse & office were burglarized in September don't you??

Thieves (we're pretty sure we know who) broke in through the wall from a vacant unit next door, smashed through the office door & stole what was my then new camera, my laptop, some misc stuff and 2 boxes of comics & stuff that was on the front table

all told, I filed a claim for my merch at $20,000+ to Collectibles Insurance Agency. My equipment was not covered

Called the police and filed a report, the cops walked all around inside the building taking photos of busted doors & the hole in my wall etc. They even sent a fingerprint technician (I called her Marg Helgenberger) to look for prints etc. The day of the burglary, they spent 3 1/2 hours taking pics, my report & looking for prints etc.

Then during the next two weeks, I compiled as close a list of missing stuff & filed it with the police and even had photos of about 100 items

about a week after the theft I got a phone call from the detective working my case - Detective Madison who assured me they were on the case. He asked about what was stolen and I told him comics etc and said I called all the stores, let them know about the theft & emailed lists to them if possible. I explained that they would have to come up sooner or later & I would hope to retrieve them.

Detective Madison said "well they're just comics. How would I know they were your comics unless you have the only copies of them?"

I explained that if he saw my pictures he would understand. He said "well lets find them first I guess" and that was that.

I filed my insurance claim which was paid this November and then I spotted a guy on ebay selling my books.

I alerted Detective Madison to the ebay seller right away & again he gave me the "How would I know they were your comics" line. So I again explained, why don't you look at my pics and his and you will understand immediately. he gave me his email address, I sent him pics & links to the guy's auctions and within 5 minutes he called back, explained that they sure looked like my books and he shot off a request to ebay for info on the seller.

It took 3 weeks for ebay to respond and Detective Madison called me to let me know the dealer would come in wityh the books & I should come pick them up later in the afternoon.. that was today.

I get to the police station, and I go to his office and of the 400 books, he has 15 crappy issues worth $200 on the outside. Some of them were not even my text list, though I had pics of them - so I guess I didn't even make a full text list for the insurance company. Here is the following discussion:

Richie: "Where's the rest of the books?"
Detective Madison: "this is all he has left. he says he sold the rest"
Richie: " but Detective Madison, the 7 golden age comics he had on ebay aren't here and they were listed until Friday"
Detective Madison: "This is all he has left."
Richie: "what about the rest?"
Detective Madison: "I spoke to the property crimes department. Your insurance company called them. Did you file a claim?"
Richie: "yes"
Detective Madison: "did you get paid?"
Richie: "yes I got replacement value"
Detective Madison: "you know these people are innocent, they paid for them too"
Richie: "where did they say they got them?"
Detective Madison: "he says 2 old people walked in with them"
Richie: "you know Detective Madison, they're selling you a crock"
Detective Madison: "Mr Halegua, you sell your comic books, I'll do the police work"

$25,000 Reported Theft
$200. Value Recovery
NO Suspects Arrested
Crime Solved
Case Closed

so I took this little stack and went home, because clearly Mack Sennett had started filming movies again, right here in Las Vegas and I had gone to the film set & not a real police station.

then when loading some stuff into my car at the house of a friend who is unfortunately on his deathbed, I didn't notice I had dropped my phone under the car until I started backing up & heard C-R-U-N-C-H

so tell me folks.. what's going on in your day???

PS. I should mention that the comic store that had or still has my comics is Action Comics in Henderson Nevada













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