(Story As Told By John Mecom, Jr.)
| July 10, 1991 - Kelvin Washington goes to Robert Swanson's store, Astro City Coin Shop, in the Galleria. He tells Robert he will be bringing him a big deal over the weekend to fence, and to have a lot of money ready. Later Kelvin's statement reveals that he has been fencing stolen property through Robert for years. |
| July 12, 1991 - My corporate offices are burglarized between the hours of 6 and 8 P.M. A gold and silver coin collection along with gold jewelry, salvaged from several treasure ships is stolen from my offices located at 4200 Montrose, Suite 200. |
| July 13, 1991 - Rodney Carroll takes the coins and jewelry he stole from my offices to Kelvin Washington's apartment off of Memorial. Not knowing what they had, Kelvin then takes the 1st part of the coin collection and jewelry and sells it to Swanson for $34,000.00. Swanson will not allow Rodney in his store because he does not know him, he only allows Kelvin to come in. Rodney waits outside of Robert's store in the Galleria. In the first transaction Robert received the following: approximately 450 gold and silver coins, several solid gold filigree buckles, a 97" solid gold chain, a solid gold toothpick, a 5 piece solid gold ring, and a 19 piece solid gold belt. All of which were dated and made in the 1600's and early 1700's. Robert closes the store early and takes the coins and jewelry home and shows his wife, Sandra. |
| July 15, 1991 - Danny personally faxed Robert a copy of the complete list of coins, jewelry, pictures and drawings of the property taken in my burglary to Astro City Coins. Pedro Martinez, an employee of Robert's pages Kelvin Washington at Robert's request. Kelvin returns the telephone call and Pedro tells him that he was paged at Robert's request. Pedro goes on to say that Robert received a fax in reference to the coin burglary at my offices and that there were more coins stolen than Kelvin had originally sold Robert. He continues to tell Kelvin that Robert wants the rest of the coins. The originally purchased coins are placed in a safety deposit box at Texas Guaranty Bank on Hwy. 6 around this time for safe keeping by Sandra, acting upon Robert's orders. The Bank is around the corner from their house. |
| July 17, 1991 - Kelvin goes back to Robert's store and sells the remainder of the coins he had for approximately $5-8,000.00. Pedro handles the purchase for Robert and tells Kelvin that Robert has gone to Florida with his wife and child to Disney World. Later in a conversation Robert tells Kelvin that he buried the coins in Florida. |
| Approximately September 15, 1991 - A live-in babysitter for the Swanson's starts stealing from them and sells 4 of my coins to The Houston Gold Exchange, and 2 of the coins to Robert Metzier. Danny catches wind of the transaction and the coins the babysitter sold Houston Gold Exchange are positively identified as being part of the collection belonging to me, and taken in the July burglary. The coins were confiscated by Danny and HPD and placed in the HPD Property Room. The babysitter had also told the buyer at The Houston Gold Exchange that these were her grandmothers and for them to call if anyone was interested in buying more of them, as she had a lot. An arrest warrant is issued for the babysitter. |
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