Museum Security Camera Footage Leads to Arrest

A fifty-two year-old Invercargill resident has been formerly charged with the theft of a dinosaur egg from a New Zealand museum’s gift shop.  The rare fossil was stolen from the Otago Museum last Tuesday, but returned undamaged after it was left in a supermarket shopping bag at the Dunedin Central Police Station two days later.

To read more about the theft: Stolen Dinosaur Egg Returned to Museum.

The fossilised egg, valued at more than £1,000 GBP has been returned to the museum’s curators.  Police investigating the crime were able to identify the culprit using security camera footage from the gift shop, coupled with footage from the police station’s own camera network.

Realising the game was up, the alleged thief turned himself in to Invercargill police yesterday.  The man is likely to be charged with the museum theft along with shoplifting offences.  He will appear at the Invercargill District Court at the end of the week, where his case will be heard.

Although thefts of this nature are relatively rare, with the increasing prices being paid for dinosaur and other prehistoric animal fossils by private collectors, museum exhibits and expensive gift shop items are becoming increasingly attractive to would be thieves.

At Everything Dinosaur we offer a variety of dinosaur and prehistoric animal related toys and games, you can browse our huge range in comfort with no need to inform the Invercargill authorities.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s award-winning website: Everything Dinosaur.