The New South Wales Police has finally recovered over 40,000 of the limited edition Bluey coins in a recent breakthrough. The coins, made of limited edition series with the lovable characters of the hit Australian children’s show Bluey, had been stolen from a warehouse in Western Sydney early this year before their intended launch two months later. The report made last July reported that about 63,000 of the Australian Mint-made coins went missing. Since then, hundreds of these coins, commonly referred to as “Bluey dollarbucks” due to the popular television series, have surfaced online near ten times face value.
The rescue came after police raided a property Tuesday about 10 kilometers from the storage facility. There they discovered 40,061 of the missing coins and detained Christina Vale, 27. Third among the arrested suspects over this heist, Vale will be tried in court allegedly for her role as getaway driver in the August capture of Steven Nielsen and Nassar Kanj. Apparently, the latter, according to sources, had orchestrated the heist and took out a contract to escape at the warehouse where he has been employed as a salesman.
New South Wales Police launched Strike Force Bandit, a dedicated investigative operation named after Bluey’s dad, Bandit, immediately following the theft report. This recovery marks an important milestone in the case although police are still tracing the whereabouts of the remaining stolen coins. The seized coins are different from another collectible Bluey set that sent buying frenzy when it hit the market in June issued by the Royal Australian Mint.
This has made the kids’ program, which is produced by Brisbane-based Ludo Studio, VOP Studios, and Australian Broadcasting Corporation, a sort of global phenomenon after airing in more than 60 countries and garnering millions on the streaming sites, such as Disney.
