Serial burglar targets dental office gold, drugs

Dale Ballard

Several Ballard businesses have been hit by a serial burglar or burglars who are targeting dental and medical offices, taking drugs and dental gold, including gold crowns, Detective Mark Jamieson of Seattle Police says. PhinneyWood reports that one burglary netted $10,000 in scrap gold. The suspect(s) seem to be hitting offices in north Seattle. PhinneyWood has all the details.

9 thoughts to “Serial burglar targets dental office gold, drugs”

  1. I wonder where someone sells dental gold? What good would it be? It's not like you can just take it to the pawn shop or sell it on craigslist.

  2. Wouldn't they be able to sell it to one of those companies with the commercials on TV? They mail in the gold and remain pretty anonymous. The commercials claim they take any bits of gold.

  3. Most gold buying companies, like Pacific Iron and Metal out past Safeco Field will buy gold dental work like fillings etc, along with jewelry and scrap. I wonder how these companies make sure the metals being sold aren't stolen.

  4. This is what I get for muting the commercials. I'd never make it as a dental burglar! Wouldn't those kind of company's raise huge red flags as far as probably buying a lot of stolen goods? Or do the feds just not have time to bother? I used to wonder the same thing when I'd see ads for escorts (read: prostitutes) in the classified in the Seattle Times.

  5. Warning: this post may upset people who have sensitive tummies, or vivid imaginations. Kate, this means you!

    Dental gold is a fact of life. Or, more to the point, of death.

    My friend's mother ask me how to sell some dental gold she had from her deceased husband. I asked my teacher in the metalworking class at North Seattle Community College what I should do with it.

    She recommended a coin store on 15th NW, just below 85th.

    I took the gold (in a couple of teeth) up to the store, and a very nice woman there explained that I had to remove the gold from the teeth, as that is not one of the services they provide. She loaned me a hammer.

    I went out to the sidewalk with the teeth in a baggie. I put the baggie on the sidewalk and whacked it with the hammer a few times. It wasn't too tough to get the gold and teeth separated.

    I then took the gold into the store and gave it to the shopkeeper, who weighed it and gave me a check for something like $160.

    My friends mother was relieved that she hadn't had to deal with it herself.

    Hope this wasn't too icky to read. I found the whole process fascinating!

  6. Kind of interesting, actually, and something I've never thought about.
    Glad I opted out of the gold fillings. My nephews just aren't that thoughtful, any gold would be wasted.

  7. Easy. They don't.
    That's why there was a big problem with cables being stolen off of utility poles and out of job sites when the copper price spiked last year.

  9. Great link, SPG! Thanks!

    This paragraph made me laugh:

    “In those documents, a detective says he committed a burglary at a North Seattle bead store in February and stole more than $1,100 in cash. The man entered the business through a window police say he shattered with a rock.”

    The detective is a burglar? Who knew?

Leave a Reply