By Elinya Chenery, ABC
Photo: Supplied
Authorities have recovered more than 40,000 limited edition Bluey coins that were stolen from a Sydney warehouse earlier this year.
A third person has also been arrested over the robbery, with police alleging the 27-year-old Western Sydney woman was the getaway driver during the theft.
Christina Vale was arrested at a property in Green Valley about 6.55am on Tuesday (local time) and taken to Liverpool Police Station where she was charged with three counts of aggravated break and enter-commit serious indictable offence, and dispose property-theft, serious indictable offence.
Vale appeared before Liverpool Local Court on Tuesday where she was refused bail to return on 28 November.
On Monday 12 July, NSW Police received a report that 63,000 Bluey-themed A$1 coins had been stolen from a warehouse in Wetherhill Park.
The gold coins were produced by the Royal Australian Mint and based off “dollarbucks” featured in the popular ABC kids cartoon they were commemorating.
They featured images of Bluey cartoon characters and were set to be released in September, with police saying the haul of 63,000 coins was worth more than A$600,000 (NZ$671,140).
An investigation was commenced by the State Crime Command’s Robbery and Serious Crime Squad under Strike Force Bandit – the name of Bluey’s dad in the show.
Steven John Neilson, 47, who is believed to have been an employee at the warehouse at the time, and 44-year-old Nassar Kanj were arrested for their alleged roles in the theft in August and remain before the courts.
Coins in general circulation
While executing a search warrant at the time of Neilson’s arrest, police located 189 of the missing coins.
A further 40,000-plus of the missing coins were recovered yesterday afternoon at a self-storage facility in Wentworthville.
Detectives located a number of the Royal Australian Mint branded bags containing a total of A$40,061 stolen Bluey coins.
Police previously said they believed some of the coins were now in general circulation, and located a number of them in the possession of an innocent coin collector in August.
During the search, police also located and seized a number of power tools, clothing items and bags that they also allege were stolen.
– ABC
