Got the message here.
Austrians Seize False Gold Tied to London Bullion Theft
REUTERS
Published: December 22, 1983
The Austrian police announced the arrest today of 5 men and the discovery of 10 counterfeit gold bars stamped with numbers and refiner’s name to match 6,000 real bars stolen in Britain last month.
The police said the five arrested in Vienna on Tuesday night apparently planned to sell the counterfeit gold, passing it off as part of the haul of three tons of bullion stolen by masked gunmen from a warehouse near London’s Heathrow Airport on Nov. 26.
A police spokesman said the police did not know how the men had discovered the numbers stamped on the stolen bars.
The police at first suspected the counterfeit bars were part of the Heathrow booty, but the spokesman said tests showed the bars were made of tungsten and only coated with gold.
The fake bars were seized in a police raid on a hotel where the five men – four Italians and an Austrian – were meeting.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/22/world/austrians-seize-false-gold-tied-to-london-bullion-theft.html
————————————
I BELIEVE THE COUNTERFEIT BARS THESE MEN WERE CAUGHT WITH WERE SIX OF THE ACTUAL 6,000 GOLD BARS THAT WERE STOLEN THE MONTH BEFORE (that’s why the serial numbers matched). IN OTHER WORDS, THE GOLD BARS THAT WERE STOLEN WERE ALREADY COUNTERFEIT WHEN THEY WERE IN THE WAREHOUSE BULLION VAULT. THESE 5 MEN THOUGHT THEY HAD STOLEN REAL GOLD… BUT IT ENDED UP BEING GOLD PLATED TUNGSTEN.
I have been unable to find any news reports regarding these 5 men having ever been charged with the theft or having ever had a trial. Most likely, the entire matter was quietly hushed so that the public would never know that the bullion warehouse vault was filled with fake gold.
DEJA VU………
