BOLO: Stolen Key Wests (1 Viewer)

dennis63

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Recently, we found that a large number of Key West Resort & Casino chips had been stolen from the inventory, kept securely (we thought) at my house.

Last year, we added a deck and porch, and had any number of contractors from various trades at the house, and two different house sitters. This year, we discovered over 500 of our $5 chips had "gone missing" when we conducted an inventory.

Because the number of stolen Key Wests went from zero to 1,091 in 24 months, I'm posting this list of stolen Key West chips, with the circumstances and breakdown in each case. I doubt they'll ever turn up, but in case they land on E-bay or Craigslist, it will keep someone here from buying them and allowing the thief to profit.

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April, 2018: A box with 100 Key West chips was delivered to a customer's luxury condo in Los Angeles, but was left by the U.S. Postal Service outside the door in a hallway and stolen. Breakdown: 20 x $1 (white); 65 x $5, 15 x $25.

August, 2019: A box containing 100 Key West chips was shipped to a customer in Tennessee. It tracked to the U.S. Postal Service sorting facility in Philadelphia, PA, but stopped there. Weeks later, I received notice from the postal service that the box was "found separated from its contents" inside the sorting facility. It was a small flat rate box, sealed on all sides, and would require a knife to cut open. Breakdown: 40 x $5; 40 x $25; 20 x $100. The theft was investigated by the Postal Inspection Service, but the chips were not recovered.

January, 2019: A check of the inventory found three boxes of $500 (300 chips) missing

January, 2020: A check of the inventory found 548 x $5 chips missing during construction. (This actually contributed to a shortage of $5 chips and stopped sales for a couple of months until our new order from Classic Poker Chips arrived.)

April, 2020: A check of the inventory found 32 x blue $1 chips, 3 x $2, and 8 x "Bounty" chips were missing.
 

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Ugh this is just awful. I hope there's enough eyes and ears on PCF that we may find them someday!
 
I'm really sorry to hear this Dennis. This should be even more reason for the PCF community to buy directly from you. Key West chips being listed elsewhere may have been obtained via nefarious circumstances.

Have you considered a sizeable in home safe for storage? I know that 18,000 chips is lots to accommodate, but the investment, especially in light of recent losses, may be worth it in the long run.
 
Locks keep men honest. It is saying I strongly believe in. Most thefts are are done because of opportunity, not planning.

A deadbolt on the room where the chips are stored that is always locked is a cheap investment to save yourself a lot of money.

I hope you are able to find the thief.
 
What really pisses me off at this point is that someone who was paid to work at my house likely took a set of 880 Key Wests. I've looked at safes, but one large enough to fit the chip inventory would need to be a bank vault, not a safe. We have installed a deadbolt on the only door and a motion-activated "nanny cam" in the room.
 
What really pisses me off at this point is that someone who was paid to work at my house likely took a set of 880 Key Wests. I've looked at safes, but one large enough to fit the chip inventory would need to be a bank vault, not a safe. We have installed a deadbolt on the only door and a motion-activated "nanny cam" in the room.
Tell the contractor he did such a great job you want to use him again for a closet addition. Have cams hidden with a bait box of chips off to the side. Once he takes the bait, tie his hands up and put fish heads in his pockets while saying "my wild dogs are going to love eating you, well that is unless you admit you stole my chips and bring them back"

I hate theives, here is Dennis trying to run a small business and you have some cum guzzling dbag stealing his hard earned inventory.
Sorry you have to deal with this Dennis.
 
Definitely sucks. Finding people just to do good work is hard enough, let alone worrying about someone you're paying to not break the sanctity of your personal home.

Here's to hoping they make their way back one day.

and you have some cum guzzling dbag stealing his hard
That's a whole different type of worker, or maybe your contractor is a little more "hands on"
 

Recently, we found that a large number of Key West Resort & Casino chips had been stolen from the inventory, kept securely (we thought) at my house.

Last year, we added a deck and porch, and had any number of contractors from various trades at the house, and two different house sitters. Last year, we discovered over 500 of our $5 chips had "gone missing" when we conducted an inventory.

Because the number of stolen Key Wests went from zero to 1,091 in 24 months, I'm posting this list of stolen Key West chips, with the circumstances and breakdown in each case. I doubt they'll ever turn up, but in case they land on E-bay or Craigslist, it will keep someone here from buying them and allowing the thief to profit.

April, 2018: A box with 100 Key West chips was delivered to a customer's luxury condo in Los Angeles, but was left by the U.S. Postal Service outside the door in a hallway and stolen. Breakdown: 20 x $1 (white); 65 x $5, 15 x $25.

August, 2019: A box containing 100 Key West chips was shipped to a customer in Tennessee. It tracked to the U.S. Postal Service sorting facility in Philadelphia, PA, but stopped there. Weeks later, I received notice from the postal service that the box was "found separated from its contents" inside the sorting facility. It was a small flat rate box, sealed on all sides, and would require a knife to cut open. Breakdown: 40 x $5; 40 x $25; 20 x $100. The theft was investigated by the Postal Inspection Service, but the chips were not recovered.

January, 2019: A check of the inventory found three boxes of $500 (300 chips) missing

January, 2020: A check of the inventory found 548 x $5 chips missing during construction. (This actually contributed to a shortage of $5 chips and stopped sales for a couple of months until our new order from Classic Poker Chips arrived.)

April, 2020: A check of the inventory found 32 x blue $1 chips, 3 x $2, and 8 x "Bounty" chips were missing.

Disgusted by this news Denni...
Besides being SOL regarding the missing chips....somebody invaded your private home and misused your trust.
I hope they find the Ahole(s) that did this asap
 
Sorry about this Dennis. I will keep a look out when I am on eBay or Craigs. Key Wests don't really come up often so if a bunch of them do surface I will let you know.
 
the breakdown w/ denoms that were stolen seems oddly specific for it to come out like that...

I'm no investigator, but did this happen over time?

Edit#1: How many times do you take inventory? Would it be easy to see 1000+ chips go missing at once?

Edit#2: Do you have a lawyer you could talk to?
 
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the breakdown w/ denoms that were stolen seems oddly specific for it to come out like that...

I'm no investigator, but did this happen over time?

Edit#1: How many times do you take inventory? Would it be easy to see 1000+ chips go missing at once?

Edit#2: Do you have a lawyer you could talk to?

I agree. You'd think a thief would just take whole boxes. Some of the missing chips were taken from boxes at the bottom of a stack of six boxes inside a cabinet, so somebody pulled chips out, put the partially empty box back and put the other boxes on top of them -- something I never do. That also delayed the discovery a bit, since I didn't pull out and look into every box, even when doing inventory. (I do now.)

Chip inventory is taken every quarter, so I knew about the thefts associated with the post office, and I knew I was missing 300 x $500 and assumed they might have been misplaced somewhere in my home office. The hit for 548 x $5 was when I realized someone was definitely taking them from the house.

The two shipment thefts are on USPS. In the first case, I contacted the post office in Los Angeles and the manager of the building, and was able to confirm the package was supposed to be taken to the manager's office and dropped off. That day, it was not the usual carrier, and he arrived during the manager's lunch break, so he just left the package in a hallway outside the condo, where it would have been accessible to residents, visitors and porch pirates. In that case, USPS said the package was delivered, so their insurance did not apply.

The second shipment theft was a thief working inside the USPS sorting facility. I packed the box. It was sealed with heavy packing tape on all sides. It felt like a brick. The only way to open it would have been to cut it open. I filed a claim for insurance but it was denied. Apparently, the postal service believes that if their employee can get the box open, it must not have been "appropriately packaged."

In the thefts from the house, I suspect one specific person -- my former house sitter. He was the only person to have access to the house at all the times there were thefts, including the last one. My wife is good friends with his wife, so making an accusation may not be worth the effort.

Hiring a lawyer for this amount of loss would be counterproductive. (In 2015, I got burned on a government contract for $10,000 and was told they'd have to charge me "more than the loss is worth" to do the legal work.)
 
Horrible this story....sad for you :(

I suspect one specific person -- my former house sitter. He was the only person to have access to the house at all the times there were thefts, including the last one.

Imo install a camera and trap it.
Call a friend who will pretend to do some work at your home and give the keys to your former house sitter.
Does his wife know for the chips stollen ? (maybe your wife told her).
 

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