The Sacramento History Museum said a thief broke in and stole some of its gold artifacts on Saturday.

Surveillance cameras showed someone broke into the main entrance of the museum around 5 a.m. and went straight for the gold artifacts in a display case, said Traci Rockefeller Cusack, a spokeswoman for the museum.

Police said officers responded to a ringing alarm and the suspect had fled before officers arrived.

In 2013, a parolee was sentenced to four years in federal prison for stealing and then selling a Gold Rush-era jewelry box from the Oakland Museum of California in 2012. The box, worth about $800,000, was created between 1869 and 1878 by San Francisco goldsmith A. Andrews and made of California gold and adorned with gold-veined quartz. The man - who was also was a suspect in a break-in at the museum on Nov. 9, 2012, in which gold nuggets and Gold Rush-era pistols were taken - , pleaded guilty.

Rare coin dealer Don Kagin told The Associated Press in 2015 that robbers in these types of thefts may have difficulty selling gold or nuggets unless they melt them down. Word of the heists spreads quickly the rare coin and memorabilia community, Kagin said, and dealers will be on the lookout for items with historical significance that suddenly appear on the market.

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Thief breaks into Sacramento museum, steals gold artifacts(https://www.recordnet.com/story/news/crime/2021/07/31/stolen-history-thief-makes-off-with-gold-artifacts-sacramento-museum/5445063001/)