An alleged coin bandit has been charged by Australia police for allegedly stealing more than A$600,000 worth of limited-edition coins based on the hit children’s television show Bluey.
The collectable currency caused a frenzy when it went on sale by the Royal Australian Mint in June this year. Police say they received a report last month that 64,000 unreleased $1 Bluey coins had been stolen from a warehouse in Western Sydney, where the man allegedly worked.
Police say that some of the coins are selling for ten times their original sale price.
On Wednesday, the 47-year-old was arrested after a raid on a home. He has been charged with three counts of break and enter. Steven John Neilson was denied bail when he appeared in Parramatta Court on Wednesday.
Police allege the coins were sold online, hours after they were stolen from the back of a truck at the warehouse where the accused worked. They were due to be transported to the mint at the time of the alleged theft, police said.
Police say that while they have recovered around 1,000 coins, they believe the rest are in general circulation. The collection of three $1 coloured coins was branded as Dollarbucks – the way that money is often referred to in the cartoon.
According to the mint at the time of release, only 30,000 of each coin and 30,000 sets were minted – meaning that around a third of all the coins made were allegedly stolen.
The Royal Australian Mint declined to comment when contacted by the BBC saying it was “inappropriate” due to the investigation. The New South Wales Police investigation was codenamed Strike Force Bandit, after Bandit who is Bluey’s father in the show.
Demand for the coins was huge, with the mint diverting all its phone lines to the sales centre on launch day, citing “Blueymania”. But as well as being a hot commodity for Bluey fans, they also appealed to resellers.
The three-coin sets were sold for A$55, while individual coins were marketed at A$20. At the time of writing, the BBC found one set of three coins on eBay had attracted bids of up to A$190 while others were offering sets for A$400. There is no suggestion that these coins were among those allegedly stolen.
The hit show, about the Heeler family of dogs, is made by Brisbane-based animation firm Ludo with BBC Studios and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Bluey has been a huge international success and is now broadcast in more than 60 countries including the UK, the US, and China.
It was streamed for more than 20 billion minutes on Disney+ in the US last year, putting it in the country’s top 10 streaming programmes for minutes viewed. There are more than 150 episodes of Bluey across three seasons.
