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Comic Books and Original Art Stolen (Connecticut). Reward Offered
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15 posts in this topic

Long time collector Joe Latino had over $200,000 of comics and two pieces of original art stolen from his supposedly “secure” storage facility sometime in the last 10 weeks. The theft has been reported to the police in the Bridgeport/New Haven area. He has also been contacting local Connecticut and NYC dealers, but it would be difficult to contact/find all of them. My hope is that someone on the board can give Joe a tip to break the case. I’m posting this on several of the CGC comic book boards to try to catch as many individual collectors as possible, so I apologize if you see this more than once.

Joe is still inventorying the stolen comics, but the below should list about 90% of them. Joe and I have partial scans of the Marvel first appearance books, and he is locating as many images of the other comics as possible. This will help in positively identifying the books. Joe is offering a “no questions asked” $5000 reward for the return of the comics and/or apprehension of the thief/thieves.

Joe can be contacted at SBL40@aol.com.

Marvel First Appearance comics (conditions vary, generally VG to F+. Can supply individual grades if needed)

Amazing Fantasy No. 15 (clear magic tape on spine)

Amazing Spider-Man No. 1

Amazing Spider-Man No. 1 reprint with record

Avengers No. 4

Daredevil No. 1 signed by Stan Lee 1991 both on the cover and the interior Splash page

Fantastic Four No. 1 (clear magic tape on spine)

Tales to Astonish No. 35 

Tales of Suspense No. 39 (clear magic tape on spine)

X-Men 1

 

Timely Golden Age Comics (some CGC slabs)

Captain America 10 (8.0), 13 (8.0), 14 (8.0), 16, 53, 63, 66, 67 (8.0), 70, 72 (6.5), 76

Daring Comics 10 (2.5), 11, 12

Marvel Mystery Comics 47, 48, 51

 

Various Slabbed Comics (all CGC unless otherwise noted) Some Pedigree

DC

Action Comics 22, 138 (8 PGX), 173 (4.5), 216 (7.5), 277 (8.5)

Adventure Comics 102 , 165 (5.5), 240 (6.5)

Detective Comics 435 (9.6)

The Flash 118 (8), 144 (9.4 Mohawk Valley)

Flash Comics 52 (4.5)

Green Lantern second series 8 (8), 20 (9), 34 (8 Fantucchio), 40 (7.5)

More Fun Comics 15 (3)

Mystery In Space 55 (7), 66 (8), 79 (8.5), 84 (8)

Superman 76 (4 cbcs), 106 (5), 114, 138 (6)

Superman Time Capsule nn (9)

Tales of the Unexpected 48 (8), 68 (8.5)

 

Marvel

Avengers 7 (8), 8 (6.5 Nick Cage copy), 12 (8), 15 (8), 16 (8), 19 (9), 35 (9 Fantucchio), 100 (9.2), 141 (9.4), 171 (9.4), 500 Director’s Cut Finch (9.6 Signature Series)

Captain America 1 vol 4 (9.8)

Daredevil 8 (9), 48 (9.6 Fantucchio)

Doctor Strange 5 (9.4), 7 (9.6), 22 (9.6), 35 (9.4)

Fantastic Four 9 (5), 10 (6.5), 39 (8.5), 59 (9.4), 69 (9.4), 72 (9)

Iron Man 1 (8), 85 (9.6), 94 (9.6), 241 (9.6)

Iron Man and Sub-Mariner 1 (9.4 PGX)

Journey Into Mystery 79 (6 Hall of Fame)

Strange Tales 64 (6), 82 (4 Westport Collection), 86 (6), 90 (5), 93 (4.5), 95 (5.5 Westport Collection), 122 (7.5 PGX), 124 (8.5 Fantucchio), 132 (9.2), 136 (9.2), 154 (9.6), 156 (9.4 MA copy), 162 (9.2), 168 (9.4), 170 (9.4), 173 (9.4), 174 (9.4), 176 (9.4)

Sgt Fury and His Howling Commandos 13 (8,5)

Tales to Astonish 3 (5.5), 30 (5.5), 33 (5.5), 39 (6.5)

Tales of Suspense 27 (5), 73 (9.4), 80 (9.4 Fantucchio), 95 (9 Fantucchio)

Thor 181 (9.6)

Web of Spider-Man 1 (9.8)

 

Various Raw Comics (Grades vary. Can provide individual grades if needed. Some comics have identifying characteristics)

Charlton

Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds 3, 4

 

DC

Action Comics 14, 16, 18, 27, 32, 36, 41, 46, 52, 61, 63, 66, 67, 70, 91, 92, 93, 98, 103, 108, 112, 121

All Flash 11, 14, 18, 21, 22, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32

New York World’s Fair 1940

Superman 4, 6, 7, 11, 12, 19, 22, 24, 26, 28, 31, 32, 34-60, 62, 65, 67, 71, 74, 78, 83, 89, 102, 104, 107, 108, 110, 113

World’s Finest Comics 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 21, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 33, 38, 46, 58, 71, 74, 75 77, 79-85, 87-89, 91-93, 99, 100, 108, 114

 

Fawcett

Captain Marvel Adventures 4, 14, 100

Whiz Comics 22

 

Also one long box of Batman/Detective and misc Batman titles was stolen. Some Silver Age but primarily Bronze and Copper.

The artwork stolen was the Marie Severin Strange Tales 154 cover and a Charles Flanders Lone Ranger drawing originally done for George Roussos in his famous book of sketches. Joe is offering a separate “no questions asked” $5000 reward for the return of the original art.

Again, Joe can be contacted at SBL40@aol.com. There is a $5000 reward for the successful recovery of the original art (no questions asked) and a separate $5000 reward for the recovery of the stolen comics (no questions asked) OR apprehension of the thief/thieves. Thanks for your attention and any help you may be able to provide.

Mike

Strang Tales 154 Dr Strange Original Cover Art Sized.jpg

Lone Ranger Russos Notebook original art Sized.jpg

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i hate this stuff that goes on if you want something you work for it.I think these crooks get off easy i'm for removing ones fingers that would stop of this stuff :banana:

Edited by comicjack
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I agree with Steve that those ubiquitous little storage facilities that look like a series of garages are not safe.  However, there are specialized storage sites like The Security Center in New Orleans that are worth considering.  It is located in the old Federal Reserve building, offers space from a safety deposit box to a full-sized room, and is open 24/7.    Extremely secure facilities are also available in some other cities from other sources.

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9 hours ago, PeterPark said:

Hopefully they will be found and returned before long...a bunch of big books there so they'd be hard to miss. Any identifying conditions on any books to trace provenance?

There are identifying conditions on many of the books, as well as scans for a good number of them. For example, there are scans of all of the Marvel first appearance comics. 

Mike

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8 hours ago, mxs7 said:

There are identifying conditions on many of the books, as well as scans for a good number of them. For example, there are scans of all of the Marvel first appearance comics. 

Mike

Terrible news and wish the best in finding the books.  Not that the thief would be so foolish but you might set up saved searches on Ebay for some of the ones that are more easily identifiable.  Maybe they try to sell some there.   And alert the major auction houses in case someone tries to consign them.  You probably have done these things or someone else has suggested but wanted to pass on just in case.

Best wishes and good luck!

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2 hours ago, mxs7 said:

I can't go into detail at this time, but I am thrilled to report it appears all of the comic books have been recovered, although it will take some time to get a full accounting due to various circumstances. The Strange Tales 154 cover has been recovered as well. The Lone Ranger piece is still missing, but outside of that, the news is about as good as could be hoped for.

Mike

Wonderful.  More detail would be appreciated when it's possible.

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21 hours ago, thehumantorch said:
23 hours ago, mxs7 said:

I can't go into detail at this time, but I am thrilled to report it appears all of the comic books have been recovered, although it will take some time to get a full accounting due to various circumstances. The Strange Tales 154 cover has been recovered as well. The Lone Ranger piece is still missing, but outside of that, the news is about as good as could be hoped for.

Mike

Wonderful.  More detail would be appreciated when it's possible.

+1

That's definitely good news for the owner of these books here.  :applause:

Although I still can't understand why collectors would leave their valuables in a storage locker when history has clearly show us that they are not secured at all.  (shrug)

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