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It took Jerome Price more than 75 years to amass his collection of 490 rare South African coins — and, town police charge, Kevin King a matter of hours to steal it all.
The North Palm Beach man last saw the collection of Krugerrands– worth $633,000 — on Sept. 26, when he met King at Too Jay’s on U.S. Route 1 to negotiate its sale. It was in a briefcase he left in King’s car while they went inside for a drink.
The briefcase was gone when they returned to the car, whose passenger-side door King had left ajar when he and Price went into the deli.
Reached last week, Price declined to speak about whether he noticed the open car door — but he had plenty to say about King, who is charged with grand theft and money laundering. He was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail on Tuesday and released later that day on $30,000 bail.
“He was a thief, that’s all,” Price said. “He deserves to get where he’s going.” Multiple attempts to reach King — who texted a man three times from the Too Jay’s telling him to “Do it now” — were unsuccessful.
According to a probable-cause affidavit made public last week, Price said he decided to sell the collection last year. “I’m going to be 83 soon, and frankly, I’m not going to last much longer,” he said last week. So he began researching potential buyers online.
That’s how he met King, the owner of National Numismatic and Precious Metals, through a website whose name Price said he couldn’t recall.
Price said he sold King 15 coins last August, because King only had enough cash to afford a portion of the collection. Soon afterward, King told Price he had a buyer for the rest of his collection, and they agreed to meet Sept. 26.
Originally, the men sat in Price’s car in the Bluffs Square Shopping Center parking lot to discuss the sale, but King suggested they go inside for a drink, leaving the briefcase in the car. Price tried to sit at a table facing the parking lot, but King directed him to booth away from the window, the affidavit said.
King then left Price at the booth and went into the men’s room and hung around the back of the restaurant, even hiding behind some potted plants and sitting in another unoccupied booth while he sent texts with his phone, the affidavit said.
A search warrant for King’s cellphone records found that he had texted another man three times while at Too Jay’s with the same “Do it now” message, the affidavit said.
After a few minutes, King and Price got into a disagreement about the sale and left the deli. Price noticed the briefcase was missing when he returned to the car.
“I knew right way that there was someone else involved in the crime, because it was just me and (King) in the restaurant,” Price said.
Town police tracked down the man whom King texted. He said King asked him to pick up his suitcase from a friend’s car in the parking lot while King ran errands, the affidavit said.
King assured him the car door would be open, said the man, whom police have not charged. The man told police he had no idea what was inside the briefcase and that he put it in the trunk of King’s car that afternoon, according to the affidavit.
Over the course of the next few months, King sold the collection in parts. He made at least $700,000 off the collection, according to police. He sold 254 Krugerrandsworth $299,894 between Sept. 29, 2014, and June 22, 2015, the affidavit said.
It’s possible some of the coins haven’t been sold. Price is hopeful he’ll recover them.
“I haven’t seen the coins or the money,” Price said. “The police say there may still be some of my collection he hasn’t sold and I may see that eventually.”
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