Yes, only part of it back. Luckily it's my harder to replace stuff. Half the stuff that's in the tubs I got back I didn't even remember I had. There are about 6 license plates from Germany, my license plate from my car I had in High School and a bunch of smaller and rarer pieces that people got me for gifts.

So I'm happy to at least have that back.



There's still about 4-5 tubs of my duplicate matchbox/hotwheels and 1/18 scale cars that are still sealed in their original packaging.

Do you know who finally steal them?

The cops say the guy that sold them to the lady i got my stuff back from is a "Local Drunk". They said they were going to pick him up, yet we haven't received any calls.

There must be something in the air becaue for some reason it seams there's robbery's here and there. On the news someone tried to break into the local University. I wish it all would stop, but I'd rather have robbery's than drive-by shootings.

Yey...the TV station "finally" did a story on my missing collection. It's so weird to see yourself on TV.

http://www.wect.com/global/story.asp?s=7332392

Everyone gets their 15 minutes of fame ... Glad to see that you got a lot of the cars back, I hate a thief ... I also see that Schaeffer BMW Center’s advertising is alive and well ...

hahaa...i think i'm short 13 minutes btw, did the video on the news site work for you. i'm still to lazy to hook up the video capture stuff to my computer to record it but the video on their website doesn't seem to work and I wanted to email it out to my coworkers back in VA.

It worked fine for me, no problems at all.

Interesting article. I'd like to see the news video too.

Ive seen, it worked well for me, the audio is a bit bad so i ouldnt understand it all but the image is good, well at least you got part of it back, is there any chance the rest of it can appear?

I hope there's a chance it returns. The more I try to remember what was in the other tubs, the more cars I realized I forgot.

The news lady laughed when she found out I had about 20 McDonalds' Happy Meal Filmore from Cars. After I said it, I looked up at her and said "O' I didn't eat that many times at McDonalds, but bought them separately." I also just remembered all my Johnny Lightning collection that was in one of the tubs. I had a little bus and beetle that were christmas editions so they had hangers to hang them on a tree. Then I had the Coke Matchbox collection with the New Beetle from back when the New Beetle came out.

That's weird about the video. It works fine on my laptop, but my work laptop that i'm usually on wouldn't play it. The version on their website was the 6 o'clock news but they didn't show the intro where they made a joke about a car theft ring.

I'm soooo excited. Someone saw the news story this morning and gave me a call. The guys owns the Uhaul/Garage down the street and he had found a couple bags and an orange tub in the back of one of his trucks.

Here's what he had which included most of my Johnnie Lightnings, Matchbox Superfasts, Micromachines, McDonalds Cars cars and smaller Herbie stuff. I'm still missing my regular Matchbox and Hotwheels cars and the big RC Herbie and Orange Bus.

hehe nice you found all that too but what did this guy do whith your collection? he sold it all to different people?

after talking to the guy at the Uhaul, I have a feeling that the guy took it from the garage and stashed it in one of the empty trucks. then he'd take some of it and then try to sell it. the furniture store that the lady bought the first set of it is just a block away from the Uhaul/Garage.

i'm going to get some of the neighbors together and walk behind some of these stores and in the woods to see if anything pops up. we did this last week and found a bicycle behind an old school and 2 beds and clothes from a homeless person that was living back there. We didn't try the woods, so I think we'll try that this week.

Nice that you found more of the collection What is the approx. percentage of what is still missing?

I think there's a good 1/3 still missing. I'm thinking 2-3 tubs (about what i got back today) and the 2 big RC cars.

We all know it but, now, with this that has happened to you we see the treasures we have in our homes, if we ever have finantial problems we have a very good guaranty in it though let us hope nothing similar happens to us ever.

It just goes to show, that thief may have thought it was easy to steal your stuff, but it was also easy to catch him (they know who he is now, right?).

we turned in information from the first lady that bought the stuff. she wouldnt' buy it unless he showed id, so she wrote it down. we have heard "zero" from the cops after we turned in the name.

the one cop did say this guy likes to hide things and then try to resell it or try to bring it back looking for a reward. tomorrow during the day i'm gonna walk behind the stores across the street and see if i can find anything in the woods.

Find anything?

Looks like they "finally" arrested him. Since mine it looks like he's hit about 17+ other people in our downtown area.

- - - -
From Wilmington Police Department News Release
A 43-year-old man suspected in a string of daytime burglaries in Wilmington's downtown historic district and other neighborhoods was charged Saturday with 21 counts of breaking and entering and larceny, and two counts of attempted break-ins.

Gregory Matthew Hess, of Wilmington, was arrested after uniformed patrol officers spotted him and identified Hess as the suspect sought in the rash of burglaries that began more than two weeks ago and primarily targeted home electronics. In addition to the break-ins and thefts, Hess also was cited for two probation violations.

According to a Wilmington Police Department news release, 17 of the charges against Hess stem from incidents reported in the historic residential neighborhoods, and six remaining charges are from incidents reported in the Sunset Park neighborhood.

Hess was booked into the New Hanover County Detention Facility late Saturday afternoon, where he remains held without bail.
- - - - - - - -

So far I haven't gotten anything else back. Since the lady that gave us Mr. Hess' name to turn into the cops (back in October) said she paid him $120 we actually dropped by her house yesterday and gave her a check for $150 as a "thank you" and made her a Christmas wreath for her door. I'm sure she thought we'd never return her money..but I promised her when we left that I would, and now I feel good that we did.