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Aged Theft in The AnswerBank: Law
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Aged Theft

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btrobin | 10:39 Wed 15th Jan 2025 | Law
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To cut it short, Father in Law was an avid collector of these plates that come out from the likes of Danbury Mint, and built up quite a collection. Not cheap items when purchased, think about £40 a plate and normally in sets of 8-12. After his marriage break up he moved in with us, his bungalow was sold and half was given to his second wife, known by us as the "gold digger". Most of his belongings, including his plate collection was transported and stored with us, sadly he died in 2019. As we are now moving house we are packing stuff up, the plates we put on display for him were reboxed, ready for shipment, suddenly we are presented with 12 empty boxes and no idea of where the plates are, so somewhere between the divorce and him moving in with us the plates have been taken by either his wife at the time or one of her sons, who would have had access to the bungalow whilst he was absent and with us. I cannot see any other explanation as to their whereabouts, obviously we are talking about something that happened about 8years ago, but we feel very bitter towards this woman as she abandoned him when he was 94 years old, after coercing him in to signing half the freehold in her favour. Do you think anything could be actioned to either retrieve the items or gain a conviction for theft.

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No I don't

No,I think it would be a huge waste of time and effort - just put it down as a bad (and sad) experience.

No, ou have no proof of them being taken at all. 

As above, not a chance, I'm afraid.

The police cannot be bothered to turn out to arrest thieves, even when they have been apprehended and held in a shop. They are most unlikely to take interest in your sad problem.

No, absolutely not.  You cannot say when they went missing, nor who might have taken them - if indeed they were taken since he is no longer around to give evidence.  Drop the idea.

If it makes you feel any better, these kind of collections have a very poor resale value anyway. A plate that cost him £40 would probably be worth less than 1/4 of that now. Have look on the bright side, at least you don't have to lug them to your new house or get rid of them

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You are all probably correct, having looked at the availability on EBay, and the fact that a full set is available for the original cost of 1 plate, it seems absolutely pointless. The only proof we have is that we have the original boxes with all the certificates and paperwork included. It just grates that once again she has got away with robbing a vulnerable old man, oh well thats life as they say.

You can always take solace in imagining the look on her greedy face when she reaised the plates had depreciated in value. Chins up.

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It is hard to envisage the scruples of a woman such as this, a look in the freezer after she had departed revealed a small packet labelled "mince", in her handwriting, it turned out to be human excrement. Again the comment as to the likleyhood of the constabulary showing any interest is the same attitude we received from the divorce court when assets were declared by both parties, she declared £25K, we know for a fact that is was closer to £250K, no interest whatsoever from the court. Like a lot of matters today fortune seems to favour the wrongdoer.

Bednobs is right.  My late parents in law spent thousands on collecting First Day Covers, Westminster Coin stuff and Liliput Lane cottages.  The resale value of 95% of the stuff was peanuts and it was going to cost more to actually deal with the things than they were worth.  I gave the majority to a charity shop.

I realise that is not the point, but I'd really just let this go.

People's tastes have just changed. Many (most?) People don't want stuff cluttering up their houses any more. The fashioned/trend is less is more. Another positive point is that you don't have to dust them all!
I too realise that this isn't your point, but look at it like this-you being simmering and cross with her as having absolutely 0 effect on her and her life were as it's making yours miserable

And apologies for the terrible spelling and grammar, I used talk to type software and sometimes it mangles what I'm saying!

If you could get the police interested enough to visit her that would shake her up a bit, but as NewJudge says the chances of them taking any action are nil.

Your only other option would be a civil action to claim the value but that is just as likely to be a total failure given the lack of evidence, and of course would be extremely costly.

She sounds an absolute cow.

Canary, I would not even advise any form of civil action.  Although the burden of proof is a lower standard in civil (the balance of probabilities as opposed to the higher criminal standard) there is zero evidence and it is highly likely that the case would be struck out with adverse costs consequences.

Thanks barmaid for confirmation, I did think that would be the case.

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