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An alleged coin bandit has been charged by Australian police with stealing more than A$600,000 ($393,500; \u00a3309,000) worth of limited-edition coins based on the hit children\u2019s television show Bluey.<\/p>\n
The collectable currency caused a frenzy when it went on sale by the Royal Australian Mint in June this year.<\/p>\n
Police say they received a report last month that 63,000 unreleased $1 Bluey coins had been stolen from a warehouse in Western Sydney, where the man allegedly worked.<\/p>\n
Police say that some of the coins are selling for ten times their original sale price.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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. <\/p>\n
Steven John Neilson was denied bail when he appeared in Parramatta Court on Wednesday. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
They were due to be transported to the mint at the time of the alleged theft, police said.<\/p>\n
Police say that that while they have recovered around 1,000 coins, they believe the rest are in general circulation.<\/p>\n
The collection of three $1 coloured coins was branded as Dollarbucks \u2013 the way that money is often referred to in the cartoon.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The Royal Australian Mint declined to comment when contacted by the BBC saying it was \u201cinappropriate\u201d due to the investigation.<\/p>\n
The New South Wales Police investigation was codenamed Strike Force Bandit, after Bandit who is Bluey’s father in the show.<\/p>\n
Demand for the coins was huge, with the mint diverting all its phone lines to the sales centre on launch day, citing “Blueymania”.<\/p>\n
But as well as being a hot commodity for Bluey fans, they also appealed to resellers.<\/p>\n
The three-coin sets were sold for A$55, while individual coins were marketed at A$20.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
There is no suggestion that these coins were among those allegedly stolen.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Bluey has been a huge international success and is now broadcast in more than 60 countries including the UK, the US and China.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
There are more than 150 episodes of Bluey across three seasons.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n