Estate Sale Theft Trend

Have you ever been to an estate sale? For the uninitiated, an estate sale is different than the garden variety garage sale, at which one of your over consuming neighbors lays out stuff that he never should have bought in the first place. It's hard to find anything decent to buy at the typical garage sale.

But an estate sale, that's a different story. At a true estate sale, the entire household is opened up. The general public is invited to wander through, inspect, buy. Multiple generations of furnishings, prized possessions, and the general detritus of someone's life are laid bare for your perusal.

I like to go to a lot of estate sales. Sure, I sift through a lot of junk, but I find amazing things -- vintage dolls, antique English transferware, silver, jewelry -- mixed in. A recent trend, probably exacerbated by the rotten economy, seems to be estate sale theft.

Last week, I went to a small, tightly controlled estate sale held in a garage. (The house was staged for sale and no one could enter.) The liquidator was distraught because someone had stolen a piece of gold jewelry right from under her nose. This week, I went another estate sale. The family had a collection of antique guns. Wouldn't you know it, someone stole an antique gun, again right under the watchful clerk's nose. The house was packed full, there were probably 50 or 60 people in a small space, it is really scary to thing of a light fingered bandit strolling around the crowd with the stolen gun. Luckily, no one would sell a loaded gun at an estate sale (we think). Have you noticed more theft at estate sales in your area? Is this a trend?