Artefacts Stolen From Train in Durham

Wednesday, 20 November 2019 Artefacts Left on Train in Durham

British Transport Police are looking for an individual who took a bag left by a passenger from London who forgot to take it when they left the train in Durham. The bag contained a Late Medieval ring and a Late Roman fibula (BBC Ring and brooch 'treasures' taken from Edinburgh-bound train 20th Nov 2019):

Police said the items, valued at £1,000 and £500, were taken from an Edinburgh-bound service travelling from Durham. The rare jewellery was left in a red plastic bag in the overhead locker by a passenger who disembarked at Durham. However, the items were not handed into lost property and are now presumed stolen, said British Transport Police. The medieval ring, which was left with the brooch in a red plastic Aldi bag, has the inscription "o mi hart is yovrs" (oh my heart is yours) on its inside. The passenger who left the items was travelling from London to Durham on an Edinburgh-bound service. The jewellery is thought to have been taken sometime between the evening of 4 October and 12.30 on Saturday 5 October. Anyone with information is asked to contact the British Transport Police.

The ring was recorded by the PAS: DUR-05020D on Weds Oct 24th 2018 (Treasure case 2018T790). The brooch was also recorded by the Durham FLO (on Monday 18th June 2018, DUR-7DDAA3, Treasure case 2018T429). Interestingly, both records were 'updated' Monday 18th November 2019 - but not with the information that they'd been stolen. The photos used in the article are attributed to the Transport Police, but are in fact PAS photos. It seems a lot of the details are (deliberately?) fogged. How did the person with the red plastic Aldi bag come by these artefacts? The PAS has in the past used orange plastic Sainsbury's bags, would the artefacts have been safer in one of them?.

More Bazthugwittery: Detectorist Reacts to Leominster Hoard Convictions

Note that Baz was really loath to mention this case until the men were convicted and sentenced: Just desserts….. Posted on November 22, 2019 by "John Howland"

The two Welsh detectorists found a nationally important hoard of coins and artefacts Worcester Crown Court was told and that they ignored the law which states such finds must be properly declared. Instead they tried to sell the items in small batches and one of the pair was nabbed as he tried to sell five of the coins to an undercover cop.[...] these two idiots have done the hobby no favours and their actions tarnish us all with the thieving brush. I have no sympathy with them at all. If they can’t take a joke* they shouldn’t have joined. End of. It’s also a timely warning to others who might be tempted. The Treasure laws over here are so good, there is no need to do as these idiots did – they fully deserve all they got. I feel sorry for the Welsh detecting clubs of which they were members – they have an uphill struggle to disassociate themselves from these criminals. These convictions are manna from Heaven for the ‘anti’ lobby on archaeology’s loony wing who are in a feeding frenzy and this kind of ‘sexy’ news has doubtless given some of them erections.

* Eh?
Note, however, that there is no concern here for the archaeological damage these men did, only the damage to the "reputation" of Collection-Driven Exploitation of the Archaeological Record.