An alleged coin bandit has been charged by Australian police with stealing greater than A$600,000 ($393,500; £309,000) price of limited-edition cash primarily based on the hit youngsters’s tv present Bluey.
Police say they acquired a report final month that 64,000 unreleased $1 Bluey cash had been stolen from a warehouse in Western Sydney, the place the person allegedly labored.
Police say that the cash – which had been as a result of enter common circulation subsequent month – are promoting for 10 occasions their face worth.
On Wednesday, 47-year-old Steven John Neilson was arrested after a raid on a Sydney dwelling. He has been charged with three counts of breaking and getting into.
He was denied bail when he appeared in Parramatta Court docket on Wednesday.
Police allege the cash have been bought on-line, hours after they have been stolen from the again of a truck on the warehouse the place the accused labored.
They have been as a result of be transported to a storage facility in Brisbane on the time of the alleged theft, police mentioned.
It took a number of days till it was realised that the pallet of cash, weighing round 500 kg (1102 lbs), was lacking.
Police say that that whereas they’ve recovered round 1,000 cash, they imagine the remainder are typically circulation.
The Royal Australian Mint declined to remark when contacted by the BBC saying it was “inappropriate” as a result of investigation.
The New South Wales Police investigation was codenamed Strike Drive Bandit, after Bandit who’s Bluey’s father within the present.
The cash have been marked Dollarbucks – a reference the best way that cash is commonly referred to within the cartoon.
The hit present, in regards to the Heeler household of canines, is made by Brisbane-based animation agency Ludo with BBC Studios and the Australian Broadcasting Company.
Bluey has been an enormous worldwide success and is now broadcast in additional than 60 nations together with the UK, the US and China.
It was streamed for greater than 20 billion minutes on Disney+ within the US final 12 months, placing it within the nation’s high 10 streaming programmes for minutes seen.
There are greater than 150 episodes of Bluey throughout three seasons.
The stolen cash are totally different from a collectable set of Bluey forex that brought on a frenzy when it went on sale by the Royal Australian Mint in June this 12 months.