Pictures stored on a parolee’s cellphone led to the recovery of a stolen $805,000 Gold Rush-era jewelry box
Jeff ‘Paco” Doyle says:
__Notwithstanding the non-violent nature of the crime and the public mood change on 3-Strikes, at 45 years old Andre Taray Franklin is a great candidate for prosecution as a career criminal–He still doesn’t get it. He never will.
__Statistics tell us something very clear about life-long offenders who reach their 40′s: They either (1) burn out and clean up, (2) end up serving Life, or (3) die badly.
__In my experience, the overwhelming majority who make it that far do, in fact, stop offending - with age comes wisdom, save the incorrigible. And, indeed, those who don’t wake up and smell the coffee after spending Life on the installment plan and reaching middle age are incorrigible. It is self-evident.
PAROLEE ARRESTED IN CONNECTION WITH ARTIFACT THEFTS AT OAKLAND MUSEUM
By Kristin J. Bender, Harry Harris and Serena Valdez
Oakland Tribune
March 5, 2013
OAKLAND -- A Gold Rush-era jewelry box swiped from the Oakland Museum of California in a brazen January burglary has been recovered, and a parolee with 10 prior felony convictions has been charged with the crime.
"We were so happy. We thought we were in the movie 'National Treasure,'" Oakland police investigating Officer Michael Igualdo said Tuesday in announcing the discovery and arrest at a museum news conference.
The box, valued at $805,000, was recovered Monday at a business police declined to name. The box may have been damaged, but the extent of any possible damage has yet to be determined.
Andre Taray Franklin, 45, of Hayward, was arrested on suspicion of twice burglarizing the Oakland Museum of California. He was charged Tuesday with receiving stolen property that is valued at more than $200,000.
Police consider Franklin a suspect in both the Jan. 9 burglary, when the quartz and gold box was taken, as well as a Nov. 12, break-in when gold nuggets and Gold Rush-era pistols were taken. Those items have not been recovered, and police suspect they may have been sold.
Franklin, who was already on parole for possession of stolen property, was arrested Sunday morning while driving in the 600 block of East 15th Street in Oakland.
Police, who don't need a warrant to search people on parole, found pictures of the box and one pistol on Franklin's cell phone, which linked him to the museum burglaries and also helped detectives track down the gold box.
Franklin remains at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin on a no-bail hold.
The historic jewelry box was made between 1869 and 1878 by a San Francisco goldsmith, A. Andrews, who also signed the piece. Officials were concerned following the January theft that the thief would melt down the irreplaceable box, which includes gold that hasn't been mined in California since the 19th century.
During the January burglary, a security guard heard the alarm sound and could see the intruder on a surveillance camera screen in another section of the compound, which stretches for a city block along Oak Street. The guard called Oakland police, but the thief had already left by the time officers arrived.
It was the second time the box was stolen. It was also lifted in 1978, but was found eight years later and returned to the museum by an art appraiser, who did not know the item was stolen.
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