Pizza and a movie ended up costing the freedom of a Vancouver man accused of using stolen antique coins to pay for his night out.
Dakoda Garren,19, was arrested Saturday for allegedly stealing an antique coin collection. The collection, which had coins dating back to the 1800s, was estimated to be worth $100,000, The Columbian reported.
A Woodland woman reported to police in May that she suspected Garren and his girlfriend, Elizabeth Massman, to have stolen the victim’s mother’s coin collection, police said in a report filed this week in Cowlitz County Superior Court, according to the paper.
Massman and Garren, who were hired to do handy work around the victim’s house, were the only ones besides the victim’s family members to be near the coins, police said in the report.
Garren, however, denied the allegations in May, and told the police they “didn’t have any evidence against him,” according to the May police report when the coins first went missing.
However, some of the stolen coins turned up last weekend at a Battle Ground movie theater and Rocky’s Pizza restaurant. Investigators said that a theater employee identified Garren from a photo lineup after the theater reported that a man and woman, matching the description of the couple, had paid for their tickets with old coins on Aug. 17, The Columbian reported.
Although Garren allegedly used the coins for face value, the recovered coins from the theater each have an estimated worth of $5 to $68, according to the police report.
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One of the coins – a rare Liberty quarter – is even worth between $1,100 and $18,500, police said.
Woodland Detective David Plaza said most of the coins have not yet been recovered.
A tipster from Clark County, seeking the $1,000 award offered for information leading to the coin thieves, led the police to Garren and Massman, Plaza said in an interview Wednesday.
Although Garren is being held in the Cowlitz County Jail with bail set at $40,000, officials have declined to book and hold Massman because she is 9 months pregnant, The Columbian reported Plaza said.
