WEBVTT - Stealing Superman: Episode Three – The Collector 0:00:08.840 --> 0:00:14.720 You know how this story started. A New Year's Eve 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:19.880 party at Nicholas Cage's house in late nine d perfect 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:22.799 cover for someone to run off with cages copies of 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:26.720 Action Comics Number one and Detective Comics Number twenty seven, 0:00:27.240 --> 0:00:31.200 two of the most valuable comics in existence, a theft 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:35.000 that would ultimately have value in the millions. It was 0:00:35.200 --> 0:00:38.320 the Stewart Isabella Gardner heist of the comic book world. 0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:42.360 That's the infamous Boston theft of priceless art works back 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:45.720 in nine You can probably find a lot of podcasts 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:49.919 about it. You know what would be strange, though, if 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:53.440 you took a famous art heist like the Gardener Museum 0:00:53.560 --> 0:00:57.480 or the Mona Lisa theft, and somehow found that someone 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:03.440 somewhere had done something almost exactly like the robbery, right 0:01:03.480 --> 0:01:06.920 down to the modus operandi, and did it just weeks 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:10.280 before the more well known heist, like it was some 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:15.039 kind of criminal dress rehearsal, and the parallels were so eerie, 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:18.480 so puzzling, that you'd almost have to think the two 0:01:18.760 --> 0:01:23.840 had to be related. Example, what if someone told you 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:27.839 that just before someone stole Nicholas Cage's copy of Action 0:01:27.959 --> 0:01:31.839 number one from his bel Air home. Someone took another 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:35.800 copy of Action number one from the home of another 0:01:35.920 --> 0:01:40.360 collector in Connecticut, and did it just after the person 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:44.280 had a party with dozens of guests at their palatial 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:48.080 residence that was known to have lack of security measures 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:51.840 and that there were no shortage of suspects, from his 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:55.280 house staff, to his guests, to his two house sitters. 0:01:56.240 --> 0:01:59.880 How could two copies of the same priceless comic be 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:04.560 stolen thousands of miles apart at practically the same time, 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:10.040 the only two recorded times anyone has ever been audacious 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:14.880 and brazen enough to steal Superman's first appearance. I know 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:19.120 I'm asking a lot of rhetorical questions, and what I'm 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:22.880 about to tell you isn't exactly like the Cage case. 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:26.040 For one thing, it took place on the East Coast. 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:32.080 For another, the collector wasn't a famous millionaire. He's a 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:45.000 famous billionaire. For I Heart Radio, this is Stealing Superman. 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:49.640 I'm your host, Danis Schwartz, and this is episode three. 0:02:50.160 --> 0:03:07.440 The collector. Drive about an hour northeast of New York City, 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:12.120 and you'll find yourself in Westport, Connecticut, a bedroom community 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:17.960 for city workers looking for a little quiet. It's safe, peaceful, friendly, 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:22.200 and home to a lot of wealth. Up until his 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:24.880 death in two thousand eight, you might have caught sight 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:28.200 of the actor Paul Newman, who was a resident for decades. 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:32.240 Martha Stewart used to live here too. This is where 0:03:32.240 --> 0:03:37.119 a woman named Anne found herself in late ninety nine nine. 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:40.280 Anne was a student at the time, in her early 0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:44.640 twenties and dating a man named Jeff. Jeff taught tennis 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:48.920 at the local recreation center, and like most couples in 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:53.360 early adulthood, money was a little tight. Then Jeff heard 0:03:53.440 --> 0:03:57.400 about an opportunity. Someone in the area needed a house 0:03:57.400 --> 0:04:01.240 sitter and maybe there could be a trade tennis lessons 0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:05.760 in exchange for free rent. Yeah, Jeff was always open 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:10.640 and tells things and looking for a commodations or something, 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:14.320 and said, Hey, looking for someone that's there during the 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:17.159 week to watch his house. I guess, And that's how 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:21.120 we got to live in his house. That's Anne, and 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:24.560 the house she's referring to belonged to one of Westport's 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:29.000 wealthy residents, and and Jeff were intrigued by the idea 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:32.159 of becoming house sitters, but a better term may have 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:36.680 been mansion sitters. The owner who had invited Anne and 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:40.160 Jeff to house it worked in the finance world and 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:43.719 knew how to navigate it, so much so that later 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:48.200 on he'd take on ownership of a professional sports team. 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:52.880 Let's talk about his vacation home. There was a tennis court, 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:58.680 eight bathrooms, stone walls, a gate. It was a palace 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:02.200 fit for a king, and he needed someone to watch 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:05.960 it while he was off making gobs of money. Well, 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:09.480 you know where I'm from. I don't know that it 0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:13.240 was for him. Yes, their main resident was in Manhattan, 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:16.880 and then they would come on the weekends that the 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:20.800 family mainly just the kids and him, and spend the 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:24.719 weekends there or vacation there. Yes, it's a mansion, so 0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:26.719 it's a huge house. We didn't need to live in 0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:30.520 the main house. We lived in a side house, separate house. 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:34.880 You imagine like a castle looking like it was all 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:39.159 made out of stone. House and then their kitchen would 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:43.400 connect like a walk away to the house to what 0:05:43.560 --> 0:05:46.800 we had at a house into like a little living 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:50.320 area with the kitchen, and an upstairs for us was 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:54.360 our bedroom. Will be respectful of his privacy and call 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:59.640 him the collector. The collector's home in Westport was cavernous 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:04.920 and reportedly filled with memorabilia of all kinds, from sports 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:11.160 cards and jerseys to autographs to comic books, especially comic books. 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:17.280 The collector had grown up idolizing Superman and Batman, their adventures, 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:22.280 their code of honor, their exemplar modern mythology. When he 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:25.000 was just a kid and worked at the local pharmacy, 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:29.280 he was paid in Superman comics, a weird way of 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:33.760 his employers skirting child labor laws, but the collector didn't mind. 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:37.560 It instilled in him a lifelong love of the character. 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:41.400 He had a lot of comics, but only two were 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:45.680 kept under wraps, Action number one and Batman Number One. 0:06:46.279 --> 0:06:49.839 That comic isn't actually the first appearance of the Dark Night, 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:54.000 but it's his first solo title, and it's perhaps the 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:57.919 third most desirable comic in the world. It's the first 0:06:57.920 --> 0:07:06.279 time anyone ever glimpsed the joke Er and Catwoman. The 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:09.520 collector had just moved the comics from his home in 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:13.679 Manhattan over the summer. Both of those comics were kept 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:18.800 in protective cases to ward off fingerprints, dust, body oil, 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:24.160 anything that could corrupt their excellent condition. The Action number 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:28.320 one was valued around two hundred thousand dollars, while the 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:32.280 Batman could fetch hundred thousand dollars. If it were a 0:07:32.320 --> 0:07:35.720 stack of money, it would take up an entire Duffel bag. 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:39.920 But these comics were just a quarter inch thick at most, 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:44.200 and like Cage, the collector had bought them from dealer 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:49.760 Stephen Fishler and Metropolis Collectibles. Here's Stephen, I'm gonna go 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:52.520 through my memory banks so that you're mentioning it. I 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:57.080 remember like, oh, you gotta be kidding, not again. What 0:07:57.120 --> 0:08:00.880 was interesting about this is that Fishler sold both copies, 0:08:01.240 --> 0:08:04.600 one to the collector and one to Cage, around the 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:08.560 same time, and both were virtually in the same, very 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:13.160 fine condition. The books were like doppelgangers. Well, I had 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:15.880 sold a tim for a hundred fifty thousand, and in 0:08:16.000 --> 0:08:19.680 fact I sold two copies within thirty days of each 0:08:19.720 --> 0:08:22.920 other for a hundred fifty each, and they were very 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:25.800 similar to each other. So in ninety I had two 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:29.920 copies and they sold for exactly the same price, very 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:34.520 close together. Time wise, if the collector was a little 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:38.160 cavalier about the other collectibles in his home, he was 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:43.000 downright militant about these two comics. He kept both in 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:47.560 a Century Safe Model six. It's about the size of 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:52.240 a dorm room refrigerator with a numbered keypad. This isn't 0:08:52.400 --> 0:08:56.000 national security level stuff, but it should dissuade most people 0:08:56.080 --> 0:09:00.720 from trying to get inside. Jeff and Anne were not collectors. 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:05.319 They were sort of well oblivious to all of it. Now, 0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:08.360 not really, I mean at that time, howell was I 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:11.880 have no, We're just like dumb kids. We were happy 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:14.240 where we were and happy that we could live there 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:18.559 for free, and just now not even researched it or 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:21.319 even like, oh, how much are they worth or whatever? 0:09:21.520 --> 0:09:25.320 I never thought of that. Oh comic books, okay, frame 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:29.040 and put them up for I don't know, well, framing 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:34.920 comics hadn't turned out too well for cage. But anyway, besides, 0:09:35.120 --> 0:09:38.600 Jeff and Anne weren't usually in the house. They were 0:09:38.640 --> 0:09:41.200 staying in a guest area that was connected to the 0:09:41.240 --> 0:09:45.800 house but relatively separate. This was a pretty good arrangement. 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:49.200 The collector allowed them to live there to keep an 0:09:49.200 --> 0:09:52.440 eye on things, make it seem like the house was inhabited. 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:55.760 On weekends, the collector would come in from the city 0:09:56.200 --> 0:09:59.840 by himself or with his family, and then off he'd go. 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:05.640 It was really an ideal situation, except well, except for 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:08.920 a couple of things, like the fact Anne and Jeff 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:12.920 weren't the only people there. And to know that there 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:17.040 are too many people around. I don't know. I mean, 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:20.400 at one point Jeff even thought the driver comes in. 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:22.800 We didn't know when someone would come, someone would drop 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:26.240 off some of someone. These people are just coming and going. 0:10:26.440 --> 0:10:29.680 There are always different people, and they don't introduce themselves. 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:32.200 They just come in and they're just of a sudden, 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:34.079 stand right next to you and you're in their house. 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:39.040 Despite his memorabilia and his other possessions, the collector didn't 0:10:39.040 --> 0:10:43.680 seem overly concerned with security. Maybe it was the presence 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:46.840 of Jeff and Anne to human guard dogs, who might 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:50.760 ward off any theft by their mere presence alone, but 0:10:50.840 --> 0:10:54.160 even patrol officers in the area would notice how the 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:58.680 collector didn't seem to mind leaving doors unlocked and giving 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:03.079 people plenty of acts us. Hey, it's Westport. The property 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:07.360 crime rate is almost half the national average. The collector 0:11:07.440 --> 0:11:10.600 had a housekeeper named Linda, who came in multiple times 0:11:10.600 --> 0:11:13.560 a week to clean. Linda had been working for the 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:19.360 collector for years and was trusted implicitly well by the collector. Anyway, 0:11:19.480 --> 0:11:22.080 when she was there, we state on our side. When 0:11:22.120 --> 0:11:24.480 I was even there, I went to school, Jeff went 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:28.880 to work, so I don't know when she was there, 0:11:28.880 --> 0:11:32.760 I would say hi, and that was Then there was Rodney, 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:37.360 the collector's driver. Rodney was around even when his boss 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:41.400 wasn't dropping things off and picking them up. He had 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:44.800 a key to the house, just like Linda did. Yes, 0:11:45.280 --> 0:11:49.440 there were multiple drivers. They would pick up different cars, 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:52.959 drop off different cars, just come and hang out in 0:11:53.040 --> 0:11:56.319 the house. I guess, so did a guy named Joe, 0:11:56.559 --> 0:12:01.160 a contractor. The collector had some home improved projects going on, 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:04.440 so Jeff and Ann would sometimes see Joe and his 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:08.160 workers around. And so things went on like this for 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:11.920 a few months, Jeff and Ann living beyond their means, 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:16.000 but in kind of a cool way. And then, because 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:19.920 there's always and and then and opened a drawer one 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:24.440 day to find something very unusual. A few weeks prior, 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:27.360 Jeff had given her a gift, which she kept in 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:31.520 a jewelry box inside of the dresser in her bedroom. 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:35.400 As she reached for it, she realized something was wrong. 0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:39.360 Jeff had given me some diamond ear rings, and those 0:12:39.400 --> 0:12:42.960 diamond ear rings, the piece on the back of the 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:48.000 stut was through on, so when I was putting them on, 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:51.640 they just clicked in and I was like, now something's wrong. 0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:56.760 There was something different about the diamond gold earrings. Anne 0:12:56.800 --> 0:12:59.920 couldn't quite put her finger on it until she put 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:03.240 her finger on it. So I looked at him and 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:07.280 I could tell that there were struns, and I was like, 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:10.719 those are not my ear rings. And then I looked closer. 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:13.520 That didn't have any stamp, you know, like how they 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:16.080 have a stamp in it that they're real and nothing. 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:18.760 And then I called him and I said, something that 0:13:18.880 --> 0:13:23.160 doesn't seem right. Someone had gotten into Anne's rare and 0:13:23.320 --> 0:13:27.640 replaced the earrings with fakes. That would mean someone had 0:13:27.679 --> 0:13:31.080 been looking in the drawer, found them, and made the 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:35.560 very deliberate choice of returning with a fake pair to 0:13:35.679 --> 0:13:39.960 try to keep the theft undetected. It was planned. I mean, 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:44.880 you can say someone looked already through everything beforehand to 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:48.880 see what we have. Anne immediately told the collector about 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:52.240 what had happened. After all, a theft had taken place 0:13:52.360 --> 0:13:56.480 in his home, but his reaction seemed a bit muted. 0:13:57.280 --> 0:13:59.160 He was like well, we'll take a look at it. 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:02.839 I mean him, that's minor. I'm sure so. And then 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:06.079 I think they're just talked Jeff and him to locate 0:14:06.160 --> 0:14:09.200 where it was. I mean, I don't know. It was 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:12.480 strange to me at that time, and now it's even 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:16.640 stranger because who comes in our room and steals that 0:14:17.000 --> 0:14:22.680 tiny of something knowing that I'm wearing I have. About 0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:26.640 two weeks after Anne's earrings disappeared, the collector came back 0:14:26.640 --> 0:14:29.560 to the house for the weekend, and that's when it 0:14:29.640 --> 0:14:33.880 was his turn to notice something was very amiss. The 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:38.480 collectors safe was kept in a bedroom closet. At the time. 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:42.800 It contained the comics, about five dollars in cash, and 0:14:42.960 --> 0:14:47.720 an expensive Cardier watch. He noticed someone had tossed some 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:51.160 clothes on top of the safe. When he pulled the 0:14:51.200 --> 0:14:55.080 clothes away, he saw that the safe had clearly been 0:14:55.160 --> 0:15:00.040 pride open. There was no elegant safe cracking here. It 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:05.000 was brute force, and when he opened the bent, twisted door, 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:09.600 he found his Cardier watch, but the five hundred dollars 0:15:09.760 --> 0:15:14.400 was gone, and so was the action number one, and 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:19.320 so was the Batman number one. The Westport police would 0:15:19.360 --> 0:15:22.680 soon be on the case, But unlike in Los Angeles, 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:27.120 there was no dedicated art detective, nor was Westport some 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:31.680 massive metropolis. If the Collector and Cage were ever to 0:15:31.720 --> 0:15:35.520 get their comics back, they'd need some kind of specialist. 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:47.080 Do you mean the forensic comic cologist. The action number 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:50.480 one's taken from the homes of the Collector and Cage 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:55.600 are by far the two most significant comic book heists 0:15:55.680 --> 0:15:59.880 in the history of the hobby. They're practically mirror images 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:03.320 of one another in much the same way Bizarro is 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:07.880 a mirror image of Superman, only a little off, a 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:13.480 little different. You know, Bizarro, he's Superman's opposite, wielder of 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:18.080 broken syntax and calling himself Kent Clark. Instead of an 0:16:18.400 --> 0:16:21.800 S on his chest, there's a bee or later a 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:25.240 reverse U S. There was an episode of Seinfeld where 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:29.360 Jerry met a Bizarro version of his friends. The Collector's 0:16:29.400 --> 0:16:33.880 heist was kind of like that, a Bizarro theft, or 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:38.000 maybe Cages was the Bizarro version, But there was one 0:16:38.200 --> 0:16:43.440 major component both crimes had in common. Police departments are 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:47.920 usually ill equipped to investigate these sort of thefts. Remember, 0:16:48.040 --> 0:16:51.040 there are hardly even a handful of our thief detectives 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:55.440 in the world, let alone comic book detectives. But there 0:16:55.640 --> 0:16:59.800 is one person, maybe the only one in the world, 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:03.760 is uniquely qualified to talk about these kinds of heists. 0:17:04.960 --> 0:17:08.760 My name is Jamie Newbold, live in San Diego. All 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:13.600 my life. I own Southern California Comics. It's a business 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:17.240 that's been in effect now since the late nineties. Several 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:20.679 years before that, I retired from the San Diego Police Department. 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:24.280 I had done twenty years there. Jamie, by the way, 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:28.159 is talking to us just after hip surgery. I'm waiting 0:17:28.200 --> 0:17:34.560 for this guy to come pull my stables. It's unusual 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:37.920 to find a comic bookstore owner and collector who also 0:17:38.040 --> 0:17:42.119 happened to be a uniformed police officer. It's kind of 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:45.720 a genes plicing of law enforcement knowledge and the insider 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:49.240 perspective you can only get when you've grown up reading comics. 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:53.160 And while Cage and the collector may have been shocked 0:17:53.160 --> 0:17:57.040 that someone came for their books, Jamie has seen it before. 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:00.920 In fact, he worked a stolen comic case back when 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:03.840 he was a cop. The books were all kept in 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:08.480 America Comics, which debuted before the US entered World War Two. 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:12.600 The very first appearance of the patriotic hero who was 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:17.800 injected with super steroids sorry super Soldier serum and fought 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:21.240 for the American way. If you've got the first issue 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:24.280 in your attic or around the house, tried to dust 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:29.000 it off. It's worth over three million dollars in excellent condition. 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:32.359 This gentleman, his name is Ray, lived in the Beach area, 0:18:32.560 --> 0:18:35.920 San Diego, and his job takes him out of town. 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:39.720 Frequently leaves his home no one's there. He had a 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:42.760 collection of Golden Age Captain America's he was quite proud of, 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:47.200 and they were missing one day. Now he can't explain 0:18:47.280 --> 0:18:50.920 who or how. He just knows they were gone. I 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:53.600 was detailed to take the police report, and I'm like 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:56.359 the only comic book guy on the department at the time, 0:18:57.280 --> 0:19:00.040 so I was able to give him some feelers and 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:03.119 what I would do if I were him. Fortunately everything 0:19:03.200 --> 0:19:05.719 fell into place. I told him, I will get you 0:19:05.720 --> 0:19:08.800 into con if you don't have a badge for comic Con. 0:19:09.480 --> 0:19:11.680 This was years ago when you could still get badges 0:19:11.760 --> 0:19:15.080 just off the street. Jamie is referring to the San 0:19:15.119 --> 0:19:19.159 Diego Comic Con, the apex of comic book gatherings and 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:21.800 a place where it might be easier to pass along 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:25.600 a stolen comic. Jamie had a feeling that the thief 0:19:25.680 --> 0:19:28.880 might head there to sell his Captain America's and well, 0:19:29.200 --> 0:19:31.600 you go ahead and look around for those comics. I'll 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:33.960 be set up there. I always have a booth at con. 0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:37.720 And if you're lucky enough and maybe somebody actually has 0:19:37.760 --> 0:19:41.080 your books and selling them, come get me. We'll get 0:19:41.080 --> 0:19:43.360 security and we'll go over and lock it down. Well 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:46.560 that's exactly what happened. So the gentleman had the books 0:19:46.680 --> 0:19:50.159 was another one of these locals, like a Craigslist guy. 0:19:50.560 --> 0:19:53.879 He would buy and sell through Craigslist. He lived in 0:19:53.880 --> 0:19:57.920 a hangar at one of the local private county air fields, 0:19:57.920 --> 0:20:02.080 so it's a really odd location. So the story was 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:05.280 that he had someone offered to sell him some books 0:20:05.280 --> 0:20:07.520 through Crazy List, and he bought him when the guy 0:20:07.560 --> 0:20:10.240 came out to the airfield and sold him to him. 0:20:10.280 --> 0:20:13.240 This man had no idea that he was stealing was 0:20:13.280 --> 0:20:16.320 stolen property, but I sensed that he should have. So 0:20:16.400 --> 0:20:19.840 when we did, in fact lock the mooth down, security came. 0:20:20.400 --> 0:20:22.960 It led not only to the recovery of all of 0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:27.320 these expensive golden age Captain America's, but it led to 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:30.320 the suspect. The dealer had no choice but to give 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:32.399 it up to the police to stay out of trouble. 0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:38.760 And here's something important to note. Possessing stolen property isn't 0:20:38.760 --> 0:20:41.720 a crime as long as you didn't steal it or 0:20:41.960 --> 0:20:44.960 admit you knew it was stolen. They hit your heart 0:20:45.000 --> 0:20:47.919 on that when it's time to decide if you're a 0:20:48.040 --> 0:20:51.639 thief or an innocent. If this old man had tripped 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:54.680 up and said something about he knew they were stolen, 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:56.879 but he didn't think he'd get caught, then he would 0:20:56.880 --> 0:21:00.159 have been guilty. But he didn't know or said he 0:21:00.240 --> 0:21:01.919 doesn't know, and there's no way to prove it, and 0:21:02.040 --> 0:21:06.080 less the suspect confest. But that's low hanging fruit at 0:21:06.119 --> 0:21:08.960 that point. Once you have the suspect of law enforcements 0:21:09.040 --> 0:21:12.840 less interested in the guy defense the items, So that's 0:21:12.840 --> 0:21:15.800 a problem. Even if your stuff is recovered and you 0:21:15.840 --> 0:21:19.800 want justice, that's two different things. Getting him this one 0:21:19.840 --> 0:21:24.480 thing justice is a complete other bugaboo. It's why art 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:29.280 theft can be so lucrative and so low risk. Imagine 0:21:29.400 --> 0:21:33.359 swiping a comic than trying to sell it then being caught. 0:21:34.000 --> 0:21:36.840 If you're smart. All you'd have to say is that 0:21:36.880 --> 0:21:40.240 a third party sold it to you and gee, you 0:21:40.280 --> 0:21:44.639 didn't know it was a hot item, sorry, officer. Combine 0:21:44.720 --> 0:21:48.760 that with the skepticism facing comic collectors, and you have 0:21:48.880 --> 0:21:53.040 the recipe for a near perfect crime. It's no wonder 0:21:53.080 --> 0:21:57.960 thieves were tempted by the collector's comics and cages. When 0:21:58.040 --> 0:22:01.920 it comes to collectors or mac shops having their books stolen, 0:22:02.520 --> 0:22:05.359 Jamie doesn't think the law is acting as much of 0:22:05.359 --> 0:22:08.960 a deterrent. In fact, his shop has been broken into 0:22:09.000 --> 0:22:12.560 more than once, and even after handing over video and 0:22:12.720 --> 0:22:16.680 other evidence to the district attorney, it's difficult for them 0:22:16.760 --> 0:22:21.160 to act. So he came up with another solution, one 0:22:21.240 --> 0:22:25.480 that probably would have solved Cage's problem. In our store, 0:22:25.680 --> 0:22:28.600 we have a lot of expensive stuff. Now that I've 0:22:28.640 --> 0:22:31.919 said that, my listeners are wondering if I'm an idiot. No. 0:22:32.160 --> 0:22:34.679 The answer is if you come into the shop, all 0:22:34.720 --> 0:22:38.919 you're gonna see her xerox printouts. Good stuff is stored elsewhere, 0:22:39.200 --> 0:22:42.560 so we locked them in glass cases for appearance, but 0:22:42.640 --> 0:22:45.040 they're nothing more than pieces of paper with a picture 0:22:45.040 --> 0:22:47.560 on the Cage could have done something in his own home, 0:22:48.000 --> 0:22:50.560 even to protect against ultra violet light. He could have 0:22:50.640 --> 0:22:53.119 just made copies and frame them. They give him the 0:22:53.160 --> 0:22:55.240 same thrill, and he knew he owned them. He didn't 0:22:55.320 --> 0:22:58.880 have to showcase him. But that's just a difference between 0:22:59.119 --> 0:23:03.080 what he's thinking and what I'm thinking. But in both 0:23:03.119 --> 0:23:08.160 the Collector's case and Cages, the thief or thieves weren't 0:23:08.200 --> 0:23:12.560 likely strangers. If he kept shifting that stuff around, then 0:23:12.800 --> 0:23:15.760 those things were somewhere else in that wrong somebody knew 0:23:15.800 --> 0:23:18.359 it well that would take a repeat have to be 0:23:18.440 --> 0:23:21.920 somebody who had been there either more than once realized 0:23:22.200 --> 0:23:24.439 there were more than these books on the wall that 0:23:24.520 --> 0:23:27.520 meant the rest of them, or someplace else, or somebody 0:23:27.560 --> 0:23:29.880 who had taken a tour of the room and had 0:23:30.240 --> 0:23:32.960 seen other stuff, which would make it more grizzly for 0:23:33.359 --> 0:23:36.359 Nick Cage, because then it was somebody worthy of his 0:23:36.440 --> 0:23:39.280 time and friendship to do that only be ripped off. 0:23:39.800 --> 0:23:42.520 These are the things, though, that a private investigator who 0:23:42.520 --> 0:23:45.280 would have brought pain to Nicholas, because he would have 0:23:45.359 --> 0:23:49.399 made him think deeply about people close to him until 0:23:49.840 --> 0:23:52.920 the detective finally found a change in the armor. It's 0:23:52.960 --> 0:23:55.719 just the way it works. I don't know if cage 0:23:56.440 --> 0:23:59.480 if he hadn't hired a private investigator. Maybe he was 0:23:59.520 --> 0:24:03.080 satisfied with the assurance, or maybe he just didn't want 0:24:03.080 --> 0:24:06.679 anyone digging into his life, including people looking for the thieves, 0:24:06.920 --> 0:24:10.520 because maybe he knew him in a different way. In fact, 0:24:10.680 --> 0:24:14.000 he thinks it's far easier to traffic and stolen books 0:24:14.160 --> 0:24:17.919 than you'd ever think. Possible. Problem is encouraged by the 0:24:17.960 --> 0:24:20.560 fact that comics are so liquid they can be stolen 0:24:20.560 --> 0:24:23.040 and sold to the next door down the block. The 0:24:23.119 --> 0:24:27.080 back issue market is rife with people who are forced 0:24:27.119 --> 0:24:31.040 feeding the public stolen books. Dealers have a cage problem 0:24:31.200 --> 0:24:34.760 every time they put books out for sale, especially at 0:24:34.800 --> 0:24:39.560 comic conventions, so that if you're a pair of thieves 0:24:39.600 --> 0:24:42.879 and there's one person working at a booth, all those 0:24:42.920 --> 0:24:47.680 booths have wall displays, one of the two will ask 0:24:47.760 --> 0:24:51.040 the person in the booth to turn around and get 0:24:51.080 --> 0:24:53.520 a price tag off that book at the top for him, 0:24:53.520 --> 0:24:56.280 because he can't see it from where he's standing in 0:24:56.400 --> 0:25:00.200 that moment, either that person is stealing or another us 0:25:00.200 --> 0:25:02.320 and next to him, who was in that person's blind 0:25:02.320 --> 0:25:04.840 spot as well as stealing. This happens all the time. 0:25:05.280 --> 0:25:08.520 The other tell is a comic con. For instance, they 0:25:08.560 --> 0:25:11.639 hand out these massive tote bags and they hang on 0:25:11.800 --> 0:25:15.960 straps over your shoulder so that the opening of the 0:25:16.000 --> 0:25:20.200 bag is about wigs tight, and they'll use the same dodge. 0:25:20.320 --> 0:25:24.000 They'll get your attention, and then they'll have you distracted, 0:25:24.119 --> 0:25:27.040 and then they'll simply scoop stuff off your table into 0:25:27.040 --> 0:25:30.240 one of those conveniently placed bags and move on their way. 0:25:32.440 --> 0:25:37.639 The stores the problems theft. Graded books are the choice 0:25:37.720 --> 0:25:41.239 plumb because the public is willing to pay more for 0:25:41.320 --> 0:25:45.280 a graded book, knowing that they'll pay close to retail. 0:25:45.359 --> 0:25:49.800 The thieves target those raw comics are a harder sale 0:25:50.640 --> 0:25:54.000 because so many stores don't know how to grade, they 0:25:54.040 --> 0:25:56.400 don't know what the books are worth, and they're reluctant 0:25:56.440 --> 0:25:59.160 to pay in your wheel money. And it's unbelievable, it's 0:25:59.200 --> 0:26:03.120 just it's just stamick. And I can't explain the organization 0:26:03.200 --> 0:26:06.960 behind this, but there certainly seems to be some sort 0:26:07.000 --> 0:26:11.080 of common knowledge, if not a greater connection. And these 0:26:11.080 --> 0:26:14.879 are all problems. These are the tells. Tells are the locations, 0:26:15.359 --> 0:26:19.399 The hands are the demons, tools, and the inability for 0:26:20.480 --> 0:26:23.760 comic bookstores to play policemen or to be trained to 0:26:23.840 --> 0:26:27.320