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Careful planning preceded 25 years of coin, stamp thefts
Monday, February 14, 2000 By Bill Heltzel, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
For 25 years, coin and stamp collectors in Pennsylvania and the Midwest were singled out, staked out and looted, according to the FBI.
Thieves would repeatedly call the homes of collectors, investigators said, until they were certain no one was home. Then they would break in and steal valuable collections.
One of the victims was a Mt. Lebanon stamp collector, and it was that case that helped investigators solve other heists. In July, a federal grand jury in Pittsburgh indicted brothers John M. Kennedy, 59, of Morgantown, W.Va., and James A. Kennedy, 60, of Wakeman, Ohio.
The brothers were charged with conspiracy and interstate transportation of stolen property, and released on bond. On Friday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Kenneth Benson revoked their bonds after they were accused of committing another theft while awaiting trial here.
The Kennedys are suspected of preying on stamp collectors in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa, according to Linn's Stamp News, which said they were convicted for similar crimes in the early 1980s.
The local indictment concerns five cases.
The brothers are accused of gleaning names from coin and stamp publications, such as the 1980 American Philatelic Society directory, which the society stopped publishing because of a spate of thefts.
Authorities said the Kennedys called collectors, usually around a holiday, and if no one answered, they called the same house repeatedly for a few more days. If there still was no answer, they drove to the city, staked out the house and broke in when no one was home.
The first case covered by the indictment involves an Etna collector. He and other victims interviewed for this story asked that their names not be used.
For several years, the collector said, he got at least two phone calls a week in which the caller did not speak. In May 1996, while he and his wife were visiting their daughter in Hawaii, their house was broken into. The burglars cut the telephone and cable wires and ransacked the house. They took eight stamp albums and folders with sheets of stamps, worth $10,000 to $15,000, and left eight albums of less valuable stamps. Jewelry and commemorative coins also were taken.
"What they took was top drawer," the collector said. "They had to have prior knowledge of stamps for them to take only the best ones."
Fourteen months later, according to the indictment, the brothers broke into the Bethlehem home of a retired Lehigh University physics professor who was on vacation. They ransacked the house and took $60,000 in stamps and $40,000 in jewelry and silverware.
"I've been collecting practically all my life," said the professor, now 82. Most of his collection was of stamps from Turkey and the Middle East. They were not insured.
Investigators also linked the brothers to coin and stamp thefts in Mt. Lebanon in December 1997, Fort Wayne, Ind., in December 1998 and State College in March 1999.
The Mt. Lebanon theft broke the case open.
A friend notified the collector that his stamps were on sale at a flea market in Willoughby, Ohio. Detective John Remark of the Mt. Lebanon police, the FBI and the U.S. attorney's office traced the flea market purchase back a couple of transactions to the Kennedy brothers.
Telephone records traced to the Kennedys show a couple dozen calls placed to the home of the Mt. Lebanon collector several days before the burglary. The records also showed calls to other victims, authorities said.
Recently, investigators learned of a similar case in Bay Village, Ohio. Again, phone calls to the victim's house were traced back to the brothers. That case became the basis for revoking their bonds.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Shaun Sweeney would not comment on whether there are more suspects.
The FBI is still looking for victims. Coin and stamp collectors who have been burglarized in the last three years are asked to notify agent Casimir J. Solana at 412-456-9389.
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