60-year-old superhero comic collector, Randy Lawrence, has spent more than 50 years building one of the worlds’ best Batman collections. It’s worth over $2 million. It turns out that it has been his life’s work but soon, his caped crusader adventures are going under the hammer. He said that he couldn’t live with the stress of owning such a valuable collection and this is why he decided to sell it, which is remarkable because he has only recently been united with the comics, which were stolen in a heist that’s worthy of a Batman story.
The Thieves Had Quite The Plan
Back in January 2019, thieves rented an apartment in the same building, then tunneled into the ceiling and crawled across units so they could steal the collection of comics. Randy said that he howled like a wounded animal when he saw the empty boxes in his storage locker only to realize that they were stolen. He also shares that his retirement is wrapped up in those comic books and also that he thought his life was over.
However, CCTV footage revealed two possible suspects but there are no DNA or fingerprints at the scene. The comics were put into large boxes and bags so police could not prove that the thieves were leaving the facility with the stolen items. Sometime later, Phillip Weisbauer, 31-year-old, tried to sell five of the stolen Batman comic books for about $110,000, 2,000 miles away at a comic book shop in Phoenix, Arizona.
Randy claims that the comic community is very tight-knit and he had alerted everyone about the theft. It was like trying to sell the Crown Jewels at a pawn shop. The owner of the shop called the cops, who arrested Weibauer. However, he said he had found the stolen comics and did not know where the other 500 books were. However, it was later found out that the thief had told his family and they knew where all the comic books were. Even though the FBI kept hitting a brick wall, the thief didn’t know this, and days later, Weisbauer brought a truck filled with the stolen comic books. Weisbauer’s charges were reduced to theft, and he was sentenced in February to probation.
Comic Collector Reunited With His Possessions
Batman is one of the longest-lasting comic book superheroes. He made his debut in Detective Comics No.27 back in 1939 and got his own comic book the following year. After the collection was found, the comic book collector Randy Lawrence claims that it will be his first good night’s sleep he had in a year.