FP Theft in Berkeley, CA - Please Help

[mister_john]

An Open Letter to the Fountain Pen Community:

Dear Fountain Pen Afficianados:

It is a very sad day for me. I am a professor at UC Berkeley who loves fountain pens. I was upset to find my office broken into and my fountain pen collection, consisting of more than 50 pens, stolen. The thieves seemed to know what they were doing as they located some pens in rather non-obvious places.

Some highlights of the collection at a Namiki Owl limited edition, a wide array of Pelikans from the 50s and 60s, and a Lamy Persona, a long discontinued model of wonderful design. Also in the collection were a Sheaffer Legacy with touchdown filler, a Sheaffer Intrigue in whale shark, and some lovely Omas Arco pens. Another unusual item is a Waterman Opera pen, a 1990 version of the Man 100 with lovely chasing. One item of strong sentimental value is a 1989 Montblanc 146.


If you see such items suddenly turn up on eBay or offered for sale at a retail store, please alert the police. The theft is UCPD case #14-01720 and the phone # is 510-642-6760.

I miss my collection greatly and will pay a handsome reward for its return. Please help me recover it.

Sincerely,

John Morgan

[earthdawn]

UGH !!!

Thats terrible.. and very sad to hear.

We will keep our eyes open... some of those pens are certainly unusual for sure and will turn a head if they pop up.

Hope tomorrow is a better day...

PS.. do you mean the 2002 LE Namiki Owl? .. if so ... wow what a loss... and a pen that will be very obvious if they try and sell it


PPS... Post pictures if you have them ...

[VertOlive]

How awful! I lost an Edison for a day and was upset, but this I can't imagine. I know the pens aren't easily replaceable, but was your collection insured?

Oh man !!!

[writingrav]

Really terrible. So sorry.

[Tony Rex]

I'd give your local pawn shops a call and let them know about the reward. What number was the Owl LE? It'll make things easier for us to spot yours. Sorry for the lost. We will peel our eyes open, for sure.

[scrivelry]

That is terrible! I agree - alert pawn shops and also perhaps local antique stores that sell small items... I hope the thieves are discovered somehow and the pens returned to you.

T

[jbb]

I'm so sorry to hear this and hope you get your pens back. Have you also posted on FP Board? http://fountainpenboard.com/forum/ I know there's at least one fairly active No. Cal. pen group (pen posse) that might help.

:crazy_pilot: Here are some people chatting about an SF Pen show http://fountainpenboard.com/forum/index.php?/topic/5787-2014-san-fancisco-pen-show/#entry33990

[Carole]

Very sorry to hear about this. If you have a list, that may help, too, if your pens show up on eBay or in classifieds. Hope that your collection is recovered safely.

[AltecGreen]

I sent the word out to the Pen Posse and the Pan Pacific Pen Club to be on the lookout. I'll contact a few of the local dealers to let them know also.

[mister_john]

It was indeed the 2002 Owl LE. I believe it was #118, but do not know for sure since the thieves absconded with the box and paperwork. While the pen itself was inked (a clue), the little ink bottle that came with it is in as new condition. It has no distinctive marks or dings, but it has the usual microscratches that come with a pen that has been used (lovingly).

John

[mister_john]

Thanks for all the help--esp. @Altecgreen. The collection meant a lot to me, and I would dearly love to recover some or all of it. It took me over 30 years to put it together starting from the Montblanc 146 my wife gave me on our first wedding anniversary. To have thieves tear it apart like this tears my heart out. The sad thing is that the only reason the collection was at my office was that there was a string of burglaries in houses in our neighborhood. I'm horribly depressed.

I looked on ebay and craigslist, but so far no luck.

John

[mister_john]

Thought of some more unusual offerings:

Sheaffer Intrigue, italic nib, whale shark pattern.
Conklin Rose Gold, black chasing LE, also in italic nib.
Sheaffer Legacy black with *touchdown filler* in like new condition.

Cannot believe there are too many of these around.

Thanks for keeping watch for me.

John

[reprieve]

Does your building have security cameras? Be sure to check with campus security; perhaps the thieves got caught on tape either inside or outside of your building. If they're employees, someone should be able to ID them.

[jar]

Thought of some more unusual offerings:

Sheaffer Intrigue, italic nib, whale shark pattern.
Conklin Rose Gold, black chasing LE, also in italic nib.
Sheaffer Legacy black with *touchdown filler* in like new condition.

Cannot believe there are too many of these around.

Thanks for keeping watch for me.

John

Unfortunately they are almost all pretty common pens. I have a whale shark as do several of my friends. The same is true of the Legacy; I have black ones in both the Legacy and Legacy 2 series as well as an Opera, lots of OMAS and 146s. The Namaki is unusual but all the others fairly common.

I hope to get them back but my experience is that unless they track the Namaki the odds are not good.

As you replace your pens though keep an external record of them.

[Adhizen]

this just came up on ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/290974408085?lpid=82

[jar]

this just came up on ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/290974408085?lpid=82

That seller is a known collector and I contacted him to check if it was a recent acquisition. It's not, it's one he's had for years but he will keep an eye out for any new ones that show up.

[Flounder]

Damn, that's a hell of a loss. I'll keep my eyes open. I'm surprised they knew the pens were desirable, it might be worth checking on FPC the next few weeks.

[Chemyst]

I'd give your local pawn shops a call and let them know about the reward. What number was the Owl LE? It'll make things easier for us to spot yours. Sorry for the lost. We will peel our eyes open, for sure.

I don't know the pens will show up in northern CA at all. This is a classic Berkeley move-out theft, where after finals and just before you head home, you help UC Berkeley by taking that department owned computer/scale/HVU home with you. Small, high value items usually go into hand baggage and end up somewhere far away, where they are pretty much untraceable.

It's a regular and recognized problem. UCPD sends out warnings in mid-May to the whole campus. Labs and offices get hit pretty regularly on campus, mostly because there is just such a large body of determined burglars. It's pretty much gotten to the point where even those laptop locking cables aren't enough and you need to make sure to lock your laptops inside a secondary container, out of sight.

[RayCornett]

Did anything ever come of this at all?