More than $200,000 worth of historic currency reported stolen in North Peoria

PEORIA — Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of historic currency was reported stolen from a North Peoria business that evaluates notes to determine their condition for collectors.

The owner of K3B Inc. called police to the Peoria business about 7:45 p.m. Sunday, according to a report on the incident. No one answered the phone at K3B on Monday.

Owner Jason Bradford told police one of the company’s few employees had been fired May 12 after a client’s order with 66 notes went missing. Soon afterward, a second order could not be located, and the business conducted an audit of its inventory.

That audit found 41 orders missing from the vault. The currency in those orders was valued at $216,536 with associated fees from K3B worth $24,786 — amounting to a total reported loss of $241,322 in cash and fees.

The company accepts shipments of currency from collectors and grades the money to help determine its overall value, according to its crispness, sharpness of corners and level of embossing present on printed seals, according to multiple descriptions of currency grading practices found online.

Bradford told police his employees video record the unpacking of each customer’s order and are supposed to record the serial number of each note that is submitted for grading.

The audit, however, found not all serial numbers had been entered, and some notes that were associated with existing orders were resubmitted a second time from different clients.

Bradford said clients who submitted those bills that should already have been in the K3B vault told the company after being contacted that the suspect employee had sold the money to them. Bradford also told police he strictly forbids his employees from trading in currency while they work at K3B.

The thefts appear to date back a couple of years. The employee who was terminated May 12 had worked at the business since October 2010, according to the report.

The 34-year-old employee has previous arrests and a conviction in Peoria County for sexual offenses against a minor, according to jail and state records.

No arrests had been made by Monday afternoon. The report was forwarded to the Peoria police Criminal Investigation Division.

Matt Buedel can be reached at 686-3154 or mbuedel@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @JournoBuedel.