Four indicted in string of cargo thefts including over $200K worth of dimes

Details are coming to light regarding the theft of nearly $235,000 worth of dimes from a truck in Pennsylvania.

On Oct. 20, federal authorities unsealed a seven-count indictment against four men in connection to the coin caper. The four individuals – Rakiem Savage, 25; Ronald Byrd, 31; Haneef Palmer, 30; and Malik Palmer, 32, all of Philadelphia – are facing charges including conspiracy, robbery and theft of government money.

The four are alleged to have stolen the dimes this past April from a truck hauling them from the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia to a Federal Reserve Bank in Miami.

In court documents, prosecutors said the “coordinated and brazen theft” was the culmination of a recent rash of tractor-trailer robberies in the Philadelphia area. The same crew is alleged to have stolen televisions, frozen food, liquor and refrigerators from trucks passing through the city.

The four-person crew targeted tractor-trailers parked in area lots. Prosecutors said the thieves pulled drivers from their trucks – sometimes by force – prior to using bolt cutters or tire irons to open the trailers.

While many cargo thefts involve targeting specific loads, that doesn’t appear to have been the case here. In fact, investigators believe the men had no idea they would stumble onto more than 7.5 million dimes – weighing in at about 17 tons – when they cracked the lock on that trailer in April.

Investigators said that upon discovering the pallets of coins were too heavy to carry, the thieves split them open and began dividing the coins into smaller containers, which they loaded into a waiting box truck – spilling hundreds of thousands of dimes in the process.

So what does one do with over 11,000 pounds of dimes? Court documents suggest the thieves were as stumped as many would be when it came to finding an efficient way to convert their haul.  

Prosecutors said that in May, Byrd directed an unidentified party to cash in the dimes at a number of CoinStar locations across Maryland. These efforts resulted in the conversion of just shy of $3,000.

In addition to using the coin-converting kiosks, a member of the crew also attempted to open a checking account with the stolen currency. Malik Palmer opened an account with Citadel Bank on May 10 and deposited $1,540 worth of dimes.

For reference, that’s approximately 77 pounds of 10-cent pieces this man lugged into a bank. The next day, he made two more deposits totaling over $1,200 – about 30 pounds of dimes per deposit.

While opening the account, court records indicate that Palmer supplied his name, phone number, address and a copy of his driver’s license.

The total number of converted dimes is still unknown, but investigators believe it amounts to just a small portion of the over $230,000 stolen from the truck.

In September, detectives with the Philadelphia Police Department’s Northeast Division turned to truckers for help in the ongoing investigation into the string of cargo thefts.

Three of the four men – Savage, Byrd and Malik Palmer – were arrested by Philadelphia police on Oct. 20. Since then, Savage and Palmer were released on their own recognizance. It’s unclear whether or not someone “dropped a dime” on them. LL