rustyrails,

Sorry to hear about your most unfortunately incident, unfortunately, as you mentioned it sounds like the perpetrator knew exactly what he wanted, therefore it is probably someone you know. Someone you invited in your house to view your collection.

Equally unfortunate, there is no way to identify stolen models from all the other models produced of that particular model, it will be difficult for law enforcement to trace. Only models that are serialized, (i.e Classic Construction Models), and you stored the certificate of authenticity somewhere same will anyone be able to identify stolen models.

The model railroad community learned a very valuable and similar lesson in the 70's. Railroad publications would visit a railroad layout, publish a feature in their publication along with the address of the layout. After several model railroad enthusiasts were robbed shortly after the publication hit the readership, they soon stopped publishing addresses.

Visit all the pawn shops in your area. It sounds like a young person or persons. Have you shown your collection to any buddies lately? Follow Ebay and, if you see any suspected items, look at the owner's address. Watch Craig's list too. I wish you all the luck, but it sounds bad. CAW

That is a substantial amount of stuff. There were no witnesses who saw anything? I'm not sure how much you want to say online, but that was definitely someone who knew what they were taking. A lot of burglars will act like they doing something official, moving boxes for someone, collecting donated items, providing cleaning services. Gone are the days of sketchy hooded men making a mad dash towards a dented up van. I'm sure the detectives have told you all of this, but ask you neighbors again. Don't ask if they saw anything suspicious, ask if they saw anyone period. Think of anybody and everybody who you told your collection about, and think about who they may have told. Do they have any friends or family who frequently come up with money for things they shouldn't otherwise have? Any dependencies? Anyways man, I'm sorry to hear about this. I've been burgled too, dumb tweakers only took a broken tent, roof rack, and ancient snorkeling gear, but still the feeling of being intruded upon and someone taking that which is in theirs is infuriating.

Sorry to hear. Makes me mad thinking about it all. I will keep an eye out for you and I hope you get it all back in one piece.

the puzzling thing is the only people who of my collection are very limited , my wife other, my father and grandfather , and brother. I know for a fact they would never do that
my family owns a large construction company and they all have small collections of their own and they're not into the hobby as much as I am.
The only outside person who knew about my collection is a very very close friend who I work with and I was with him when this happened, I work for bnsf as a conductor and he's my locomotive engineer so it wasn't him. my collection is not on display out in the open, it's in a spare room my hobby room, which is always locked when I'm not in there. so far the only idea can think of is this kid well teenager who lives down the road from me. He is " excuse my language" a !!!!head, last summer the wife came home from work and this little creep was on our property snooping around she called the cops and had him trespassed, and back in may I had the cops trespass him again he was on our property on an atv and flying down our private road. and the sheriff's office did impound the atv. I live in eastern Washington state on 27 acres out in the country so I do have neighbors the closest one is about a mile and a half to two miles from me. every now and then we see people sitting in car and usually at night and more often then not their using drugs. and during the week we both work and normally make it home around 630 or 7pm. so it happened some where between 8am and 6pm. no identifiable finger prints or foot prints were found and the door on the side of the garage was forced open with a pry bar or large flat blade screw driver according to police and same with the door that goes from the garage to inside the house. They did leave behind some small accessories : chains, spare parts tires and wheels, wacker plate , trench boxes, extra buckets, thumbs breakers my diorama figures and the diorama it's self with all the buldings. I'm just really bummed out it was relaxing to tinker with in the evenings. and unfortunately I don't think I will replace what I lost and their are a few of them that can't be replaced they are no longer produced and are rare and very hard to find.

Sorry to hear. There is nothing worse than a thief. Sad thing these days is being a crook and a meth head is easier than working.

On a different note, which line do you run for BNSF? We are working on building a double line from Rathdrum to Ramsey Rd.

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Are you an enviromentist, or do you work for a living?

Hi Rustyrails,

I am so sorry for you I have been collecting for fortie years if anything happened to my collection I would be devestated
i hope you do find out the the person or persons are ,have you add the police around to check for fingerprints ?
By the way I have been a rail fan since being a kid in the U.K. Still remember the fly Scotsman going past my granmar's
House. Would love to come to America and travel along the Hi line to old now read the Trains mag every month though
Leon.

I'm retired now and so I do walks around the neighborhood. Being an ex cop helps know what to keep an eye out for. An old van, pick up or car in a drive is suspicious. I call the cops then check it out. Pros know what they are looking for. Stuff they can sell quickly. Guns, jewelry even expensive toys. I agree that it was kids. A toy collection might be tough to pawn. Pros have someone ready to buy their stuff. Did one of the kids friends suddenly stop coming around? A pro wants stuff they can sell quickly.