Australian police have recovered 40,000 stolen ‘Bluey’ coins

SYDNEY — Australian police said Wednesday they had recovered more than 40,000 stolen limited-edition coins based on the popular children’s animated series “Blue.”

The Bluey coins, with a denomination of one Australian dollar (65 US cents) each, were found at a storage facility in the Sydney suburb of Wentworthville on Tuesday afternoon, a police statement said.

Bluey is the name of a blue heeler puppy whose adventures with her cattle dog family in the Australian city of Brisbane, where the series is produced, have become popular among children around the world.

The series premiered in Australia in 2018 and began streaming on Disney+ in 2020.

The 40,061 coins recovered were still in the Royal Australian Mint plastic bags they had stolen three months earlier, police said.

On July 12, police were notified that 63,000 of the forthcoming series of coins, produced by the national mint in Canberra, had been stolen from a warehouse in the Sydney suburb of Wetherill Park, not far from where the coins were found. Tuesday.

Police set up Strike Force Bandit to investigate. Bandit is the name of Bluey’s father.

Three people have been charged with theft.

A 27-year-old woman, who police allege drove two accomplices to the July burglary, was arrested Tuesday, hours before the coins were recovered.

Two men had previously been charged over the theft and police were looking for a fourth suspect.

Police raided a property in Sydney on July 31 and found 189 of the coins. They discovered that the dealer who sold them was a legitimate coin collector who had innocently purchased them for AU$1.50 (98 US cents) each. He received no compensation for the seized coins.

A spokesperson for the Royal Australian Mint could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.