Police were called to a dime scene in Philadelphia Thursday morning after a heist saw criminals make off with a stolen six-figure fortune in small change.
The thieves are believed to have broken into a truck carrying the coins on Wednesday night as it sat in a Walmart parking lot in the city’s northeast, NBC Philadelphia reported.
They escaped with an estimated $100,000 in dimes from the unmarked trailer, which had collected $750,000 in coins from the U.S. Mint and was due to transport them to Florida.
$100,000 worth of dimes were stolen from a truck in a Philadelphia parking lot. Pic.twitter.com/i4RplMrSHk
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) April 14, 2023
The truck was owned by logistics company Keen Cargo, according to NBC Philadelphia.
Spokespeople for Keen Cargo and the U.S. Mint were not immediately available for comment when contacted by Coins2Day.
Police officers were called to the parking lot on Thursday morning, where NBC helicopter footage showed dimes strewn all over the parking lot.
No arrests had been made, and an investigation is underway, NBC reported.
Speaking to reporters about the case, Philadelphia Police Captain John Ryan said the criminals had been “pretty busy overnight,” and that they had appeared to use bolt cutters to access the truck.
“They were trying to cross-load the dimes into other things to carry it away,” he said. “There’s dimes all over the parking lot, all down the street.”
Ryan added that it was “common practice” for drivers to pick up loads of coins from the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia and wait in the city overnight before heading toward their destinations.
“They park their truck for the night and get on the road in the morning,” he said.
Although cargo thefts are not uncommon in Philadelphia, Ryan noted that cash wasn’t usually what was stolen from trailers, with most similar crimes involving goods like meat, TVs, refrigerators, and alcohol being taken.
According to data from transportation firm CargoNet, cargo thefts are surging across the U.S., with thieves targeting food and drinks as inflation continues to send the cost of basic goods soaring. The average loss in a food and beverage cargo theft is $214,000, CNBC reported last month.
