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A California bottle collector recently came home to a broken front door and ransacked house after a burglar had broken in while he was gone. The collector was stunned to find many of his prize bottles gone and his front doorjamb broken in. He immediately called the police who took a report. The victim spent the night wondering how, why and, most of all, who? The story was just beginning.

The victim of the multi-thousand dollar theft was left wondering how someone could have known he had a collection to begin with, let alone how he knew he wouldn't be home. Also, how he could have been so brazen to kick in the front door with neighbors nearby. Had the thief been casing his house? He had to be a large man just to "wham," kick in the door. And maybe the scariest question of all, was he coming back?

All these questions continued to bother the victim and, although he had little hope of seeing his bottles again, he called antiques shops in his area and contacted American Bottle Auctions (ABA), an antique bottle auction house, located in Sacramento, CA. The owner of the auction house received an email listing of all the missing bottles the next week, which was followed up with a phone call from the victim. The victim explained the dread he was going through, trying to piece the puzzle together and his concern for other collectors; was this person going to strike again? American Bottle Auctions told him they would be on the lookout for any bottles that came their way. So, that was that, or was it?

The next week the owner of American Bottle Auctions had been down to Santa Barbara to check out a bottle collection. On his way back, he called his office and checked for messages. He was told a man had some bottles and wanted to sell them. He wrote down his phone number and called the cell phone. The man said he had been collecting bottles since he was a kid and was getting married. He said he needed to sell some bottles for a down payment on a house for his bride and himself. The owner asked him what he had for sale and the man mentioned a few pieces. Nothing that would lead one to believe he was anything but a collector who, despite his lack of knowledge of bottle specifics, wanted to raise some cash. The owner of American Bottle Auctions told the caller that he could meet him the next day, Saturday. He agreed that they would meet at ABA’s downtown office and see if they could strike a deal.

The next day, the owner of American Bottle Auctions got to his office around 11:30 am. It was very hot out and he wanted to cool the office a little before his guest arrived. He walked in the office and the phone rang, it was the bottle seller, "Where was he?" the bottle seller wanted to know. The owner responded that he thought the meeting was at 12:00. He agreed that it was and he was early. "Can I come up, now?" he asked the owner. "Sure," he answered, "I'll come down and unlock the door." American Bottle Auctions is in a secured building locked at all entrances with additional Brink's Security systems in each office. In other words, it's a tough nut to crack. In a couple minutes, the groom-to-be stood in the showroom of American Bottle Auctions holding a plastic tub filled with cloth covered bottles. He sat the tub on a table and talked incessantly about the bottles, where he found them, how he had collected them all his life, he never stopped talking. The owner reached into the tub and pulled the first bottle out and uncovered it. It was a black Hostetter's Bitters in nice condition. He then pulled out another, then another and, within a minute, he knew what was going on. It all fit. This man didn't know much about bottles for someone who collected them his whole life. And, more importantly, every bottle was coming back to the owner in the form of a list, the list that had been emailed to him- the list, of stolen bottles.

The owner didn’t know what to do. How could he have been so stupid? The guy never sounded right, why didn't he have a plan? His first thought was to tell the guy he needed to talk to his business partner in private, so he walked outside and called his friend. He whispered to him that a guy was here with all the stolen bottles. His friend asked him what he was going to do. "I don't know, that's why I'm calling you!" he exclaimed. "Maybe you should call the police," he said. "Well, yeah, but now? How can I with him here?" "Maybe I can call for you," his friend replied. "I'll think about it and call you back," the owner finally whispered. He walked back in the office, looking into the seller's eyes to see if he suspected that he knew these were stolen bottles. He didn't appear riled. "Well," he told the guy, what you have here is about $2,500 dollars worth of bottles." The owner was still wondering what to do. He knew two things and only two things. One, he had to find out this guys name. Second, he couldn't let him just walk out with the bottles. He couldn't stand the thought of telling the victim he'd seen his bottles but let the guy go. After another couple minutes of continuous babble from the seller, the owner simply said, "The best I can do is $2,000 dollars." He couldn't believe it came out of his mouth.

The owner had thought about just buying them but the seller had told him they were worth $45,000 dollars on the phone the day before. Was this guy violent? He seemed okay. Dressed in white Dockers and a fairly dressy black shirt, he felt sweat accumulating under his own shirt now. If this guy is a criminal, would he get violent if the owner told him he knew the bottles were stolen? "Isn't they're some kind of rule that shop owners go by in these situations?" he thought to himself. The owner didn't have much cash but decided to go ahead and see if the guy would take a check. "All I have is a check if you'll take the $2,000 dollars. I couldn't get cash until Monday," he said. Wait a minute, the owner thought. He could maybe get the guy to come back and meanwhile have the police there waiting for him. But would he really want to get into that? What if the guy got suspicious? No, he thought, just hope the guy takes a check. It's Saturday and he can't cash it until Monday anyway. Besides, you can cancel the check before Monday and let the police know meanwhile, he thought.

"Okay, I'll take a check," the guy muttered. The owner was now feeling queasy, not knowing if he'd done the right thing or not. Then, one last idea hit him. Ask the guy for a drivers license and get his address. "If I type in your address on the check, they're easier to cash," the owner said to him nervously, wondering if he'd just blown it. "No problem," the seller said, handing him his license. In a minute or two, the guy was gone, the bottles were in the office and the owner was on the phone leaving a message with the bottle's owner. Next, he called the police who said they would get back to him. He thought of canceling the check right away but then thought it would look too suspicious. "Besides, he can't cash it until Monday anyway," he said to himself.

Later that night, the bottle owner called the auction owner and was delighted to learn his bottles had been recovered. "Did you get his name," he wanted to know. "Not only his name but his address," the owner replied. "Fantastic! I'll get back to you after I talk to the detective who is handling the case," he told the auctioneer.

The next couple of days were filled with phone calls… calls from the police, the detective and all the ramblings that occur when something like this happens. The auction owner thought everything was fine until he found out that the check had been cashed that same Saturday. "Oh well," he thought. "I'll get it back. Besides, if the thief didn't cash it, there wouldn't have been a crime," he thought.

Soon, he was identifying a picture of the thief… not an easy task with a three-year-old picture to go from. A call to the detective said that they were preparing to arrest the man. It seemed he might have a drug problem and had been involved in other incidents, not unlike this one. The detective was cautious about revealing too much information. A couple days later, when all the information had been confirmed, the detective called the burglar to tell him they happened to have a video of him breaking into the victim's house. He told him that the neighbor had installed a hidden video camera on his front porch and he was easily identified from it. The thief bought the phony story, broke down, and admitted everything. The detective had obviously done that before, it worked. They let the guy get his stuff together and a day later arrested him. They brought him to jail, where he is still staying, awaiting a deal with the prosecutor. The detective told the auction owner that they had recovered $600. But, he also said that it would be a while before he saw any compensation, since they couldn't release any money until he was sentenced.

The victim agreed to pay the auctioneer the two grand and wait for the other money to be released. He had his bottles back (which were worth way more than $2,000) and, better yet, the culprit who invaded his castle was sitting in jail.

This is a true story and it was published for a few reasons… not the least of which is to let bottle collectors know that stuff like this is happening. Many collectors don't think people would steal bottles since they have their own "fingerprint" in the bubbles and crudity inherent to antique glass. But thieves do take bottles and collectors should make sure they're collections are secure and, most of all, insured. The owner of these bottles did have insurance, but he also had a $1000 deductible. Still, not a bad investment since the thief left a number of much more valuable bottles behind for some reason.

Another reason for this story is a question. What would you have done had you been in the place of the auctioneer? Would you have confronted the man? Told him you weren't interested? Would you have bought the bottles? We'd love to hear what you would have done had you been in his place. As it turned out, things turned out pretty well. The bottles are back, the thief's in jail and, hopefully, the rest of the money will be returned and everyone will be happy. But, once again, what would you have done? We'd like to know. I know what I did.

In regard to; GET THE WORD OUT: Anyone who knowingly posses stolen merchandise bought legally or not is no better than the thief himself. What about morals, ethics and a sense of trying to do the right thing in a difficult situation ? It's hard for me to believe that there's actually bottle people out there who think their exempt from such ethics in such a tight knit group. Most bottle people I've met in the 40 years I've been collecting are decent people but there's always an exception in every group. It's to bad the hobby has collectors out there with this mentality while giving no regard for other peoples property and who are only interested in their own agenda. It says a lot about someone's character & morals who thinks it's okay own stolen property just because the law says so.

I would have bought the bottles, because if they were my bottles I would have wanted the auction guy to buy them.  It was a fraction of thier value and bottle collectors as a lot are very honest and would not have stuck the
auction owner with the money.  Getting the thief's name and address was a bonus.  That's why I am very reluctant to show many people my collection for fear that the word would get out that I had a very valuable collection and I would be vulnerable.  Even considering insurance some items are irreplaceable and one of a kind, collected over 36 years searching and scrounging.

The moral of the story here is GET THE WORD OUT.  I was involved in a deal a few years back where I bought a rare bottle in an antique shop.  Several years later I was approached by a person claiming to be the former owner. He had just been released from San Quentin Prison after a three year term for methamphetamine sale. He had however not yet entered prison at the time his bottle was allegedly stolen but according to his friends was "messed up on drugs".  Had the word been spread in the bottle community immediately it would have reached myself and a few others who specialize in this type of bottle.  I would have realized the story told by the consignor about digging the bottle was false and the original owner, if indeed the bottle had been stolen (he told me his friend took off with a load of personal items when he was moving but filed a police report at the time he contacted me claiming the bottle was taken from his residence in a burglary) would have had his bottle back.  The person sued me in small claims court for the maximum ($5000) which is more than twice what I had sold the bottle for as a duplicate. The outcome will be of interest to collectors.  Under California law I was a "bona fide purchaser" which means if I legally bought an item from a legitimate business and have a receipt, I am not responsible for where the item came from or do I have any obligation to any previous owners. The drug dealer/bottle collector used the services of an unscrupulous private investigator/bottle collector whose underhanded techniques added an extra measure of slime to the whole affair. Good bottles get to the "mainstream" quickly so getting the word out can make the difference in recovering them.
 

Also make a "bubble map" or take a good photo of your valuable bottles. The private investigator made the point in small claims court that bottles are unique.  I had examined the same bottle (if it was the same bottle) some fifteen years earlier for about a minute at a bottle show.  The claim was made that I should have recognized the bottle yet the owner who had an (the?) example of the bottle in his possession for more than fifteen years could not himself describe the unique characteristics of the bottle he had! A photo or a drawing will aid in the identification of a specific example. This worked for a collector friend when a bottle he had stolen at a show showed up on eBay. He had a photo and the bottle was positively identified and returned by police.
 

Some of the comments and opinions shown above have been submitted by our readers as responses to the Auctioneer's Viewpoint column. The comments and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of American Bottle Auctions or its owner, Jeff Wichmann.

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All photographs and editorial copy appearing on this website are the exclusive property of American Bottle Auctions and may not be reprinted, quoted or re-published without the permission of Jeff Wichmann, the owner of American Bottle Auctions.