Canadian Mint Employee Smuggles $180K Of Gold Out In His Rectum

#1 Old Prison Trick

An employee of the Royal Canadian Mint has been accused of allegedly smuggling about $180,000 in gold from the fortress-like facility, possibly evading multiple levels of detection with a time-honoured prison trick. Yes, it is exactly what you thought. He hid gold nuggets up his butt.

#2 Justice Peter Doody

The case against 35 years old Leston Lawrence was heard in an Ottawa courtroom as Justice Peter Doody (Doody...Ha!Ha!) reserved decision until November on a number of smuggling-for-cash charges. He listened as the prosecutor and defense presented their findings before deciding to let the case go to trial with a jury.

#3 Sold Gold For Cash

The judge was told that, on multiple occasions, Lawrence took small circular chunks of gold a cookie-sized nugget called a "puck" to Ottawa Gold Buyers in the Westgate Shopping Centre and sold them. He is also reportedly on camera selling to several pawn shops in Canada nad the Great Lakes region of the United States.

#4 Each Drop Was Worth Over $6,500

On average, the pucks weighed about 210 grams, or 7.4 ounces, for which he was given cheques in the $6,800 range, depending on fluctuating gold prices and rates in Canada or the US. He then deposited the cheques at the Royal Bank in the same mall.

#5 Hundreds Of Succesful Heists

The resident of Barrhaven smuggled about 18 of the gold pucks between November 2014 and March 2015. Together with hundreds of gold coins that were redeemed, the total value of the suspected theft was conservatively estimated at $179,900.

#6 The Tiptoe Escape

It is believed that Lawrence smuggled out gold nuggets inside his rectum, prosecutors alleged. They found a very large tub of Vaseline in his work locker and also three other gold pucks that matched the gold molten used in the mint. Two employees testified in the preliminary hearing that Lawrence had occasionally 'tiptoed' out of work. It was reported that he had an emergency during one escape with his heist and 'dumped' several gold coins in the restroom of the lobby at the Mint.

#7 Bank Teller Became Suspicious

The bank teller in the mall where Lawrence deposited his money became suspicious of the deposits and alerted the police. Three observations tipped off the bank teller. Lawrence was a mint employee, he had an unusual number of deposits and he frequently requested overseas transactions.

#8 Not Very Secure

"This is the Royal Canadian Mint, your Honour, and one would think they should have the highest security measures imaginable," his lawyer stated in the courtroom. He argued that the Royal Canadian Mint had not reported any missing nuggets and pointed out that the mint left gold sitting in open buckets all over the building, according to his client.

#9 DNA On Petroleum Jelly

The tub of Vaseline was presented in court and submitted into evidence as the prosecutors argued they had enough evidence to bring Lawrence to trial for the alleged butt smuggling. Tests have shown that the lubricant had his DNA on it as well as five of the 'gold nuggets' confiscated by one of the pawn shops in northern Ohio.

#10 Passed Through Security

The prosecution further argued that Lawrence job was to scoop gold from buckets so it could be tested for purity, Therefore, he often set off the metal detectors and was ushered through because his department was known to be covered in gold particles. When he was searched the procedure was to do a manual search with a hand-held wand, a search that he always passed.

#11 Facing Multiple Theft Charges

Lawrence faces multiple charges, including theft, laundering the proceeds of crime, possession of stolen property and breach of trust, and is expected to hear a decision on his case in November. If fund guilty he could face 25 years in prison. Until then, I'm sure he'll be shitting bricksjust not gold ones.

Categories

More