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Ever wondered about the untold stories behind history's most audacious art heists? Priceless Crimes uncovers the thrilling world of Crime Network Files and the cunning minds who take them. Join...
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Ever wondered about the untold stories behind history's most audacious art heists? Priceless Crimes uncovers the thrilling world of Crime Network Files and the cunning minds who take them.
Join us as we delve into the shadowy realm of art theft, exploring everything from legendary museum robberies to intricate forgery schemes. We go beyond the headlines to reveal the meticulous planning, dramatic escapes, and often shocking fates of priceless artifacts.
New episodes arrive daily, Monday through Sunday, at 4:00 AM, bringing you a fresh dose of high-stakes intrigue. Each installment offers meticulously researched narratives, presenting a gripping account of the world's most infamous art criminals and the detectives who hunt them.
Priceless Crimes is for anyone fascinated by unsolved mysteries, true crime with a sophisticated twist, and the allure of hidden treasures. If you're captivated by the intersection of art history and criminal enterprise, this is your ultimate destination.
Subscribe now and unlock the secrets of the art world's greatest capers.
show less
Join us as we delve into the shadowy realm of art theft, exploring everything from legendary museum robberies to intricate forgery schemes. We go beyond the headlines to reveal the meticulous planning, dramatic escapes, and often shocking fates of priceless artifacts.
New episodes arrive daily, Monday through Sunday, at 4:00 AM, bringing you a fresh dose of high-stakes intrigue. Each installment offers meticulously researched narratives, presenting a gripping account of the world's most infamous art criminals and the detectives who hunt them.
Priceless Crimes is for anyone fascinated by unsolved mysteries, true crime with a sophisticated twist, and the allure of hidden treasures. If you're captivated by the intersection of art history and criminal enterprise, this is your ultimate destination.
Subscribe now and unlock the secrets of the art world's greatest capers.
Episodes & Posts
Episodes
Posts
9 SEP 2026 · The Dog, the Bar Tab, and the Hidden Bones That Broke a Racketeer
A dog named Biscuit dug a zeroed bar tab dated 2008 from a riverside root, printed with the name of a man who had been dead for over a year - a tiny plastic rectangle that would later lead to a 31-year prison sentence and the discovery of a buried tire-shop owner. How did a laminated tab from Fenwick Pour tie a city inspector, a route coordinator, and a missing businessman into one criminal web?
In this episode, we follow the discovery and the paperwork trail from the Nolan River trail into the Nolan Valley Financial Crimes Unit, tracing how a found bar tab reopened a missing-person case and exposed a protection racket; what started with a dog and a piece of thermal paper becomes the question: who was cashing in on immunity, and who paid with a life?
Person: Eric Simpson
Event: Biscuit found laminated bar tab on August 9, 2011
Location: Nolan River trail, Fenwick Falls
Case: Walt Drebin missing since March 2010
Status: 31-year prison sentence (result attributed to evidence including the bar tab)
- Biscuit is a three-year-old Labrador mix who unearthed the laminated bar tab on August 9, 2011.
- The bar tab was dated 2008 and was zeroed to $0.00 with Eric Simpson’s name printed across the top.
- Fenwick Falls is a city of roughly 80,000 people where Doug Pell ran tabs at Fenwick Pour under the name Eric Simpson since at least 2002.
- City inspector Ted Kwan had 14 years on the job with a $51,000 salary and deposited $214,000 in cash structured under $10,000.
- Tire shop owner Walt Drebin was reported missing in March 2010 after his shop closed following missed payments to the protection network. To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.
© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
8 SEP 2026 · The Night Dunmore Burned: How a Kick-Plate Toppled a Town
The town lost a landmark in seventy-two hours after a one sixteen a.m. fire on June 30, 2011, and a brass kick-plate with fingerprints became the single physical trace left behind; who in a city of intertwined power structures would risk everything for a demolition contract? What did a scratched service-door latch, a pattern of bids within three percent of the award floor, and a photo of a beagle reveal about how the blaze was set and covered up?
In this episode, we lay out the timeline and the people tied to the Heller Building fire, from the midnight calendar entry to the demolition bid and the later evidence that survived the wrecking ball - and we follow the question that kept investigators digging: how did a routine municipal approval turn into a fast demolition and a near-total erasure?
Person: Ronald Tucker, age 53
Person: Craig Ellison, age 47
Person: Russell Hall, age 31
Event: Fire at the Heller Building on June 30, 2011 at 1:16 a.m.
Company: Meridian Site Services won 9 of 11 emergency demolition contracts in Dunmore between 2007 and 2011
- The Heller Building fire was called in at 1:16 a.m, on June 30, 2011.
- Meridian submitted its demolition bid at approximately 7:00 a.m. the same morning and the building was demolished within 72 hours.
- Meridian's nine winning emergency demolition contracts between 2007 and 2011 arrived within 24 hours of qualifying fires and within 3% of the award floor.
- Craig Ellison opened a bid window in his private work calendar at 11:47 p.m. on June 29, 2011; 1 hour and 29 minutes later the fire was reported.
- Investigators found a brass kick-plate with Pete Vance's fingerprints after it was thrown into the Calloway River. To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.
© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
7 SEP 2026 · Surveyor Finds a Steel Ring Bolted Into the Floor: The Iron Ring of Dellwood
A routine easement survey turned into the discovery of a steel ring bolted through felt and plywood into a subfloor, anchored to a cable and a fireproof cashbox designed to drop below floor level in four seconds. How did a small room above a laundromat, a pine plug in a floor, and a surveyor's footnote expose a two-decade protection and debt operation in plain sight?
In this episode, we follow the timeline from June 9, 2011 when Todd Armstrong found the ring, through how the Mercer Street card game, off-books ledgers, and local labor connections formed three revenue streams that funded the racket. What did that bolt, that ring, and a contractor invoice finally reveal?
Person: Todd Armstrong
Date: June 9, 2011
Location: Mercer Street, Dellwood, Ohio
Person: Frank Farrell
Person: Gregory Thompson
- The steel ring was bolted through felt and plywood into the subfloor and anchored a cable to a fireproof cashbox.
- The drop mechanism was engineered to activate four seconds from a signal, allowing contents to fall below floor level and latch shut.
- Frank Farrell had owned the Mercer Street building since 2003 and was 58 years old in summer 2011.
- Gregory Thompson kept the first ledger in a fireproof box on Birch Dell Road and opened a second safety deposit box in Clover Falls in 2007.
- Investigators estimated roughly half of all financial obligations on the Mercer Street block and two adjacent blocks traced back to card game losses. To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.
© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
6 SEP 2026 · The Payphone Tip That Dismantled a Freight Corridor Extortion Ring
A single payphone call exposed a hidden extortion system that skimmed precise charges - $70 and $140 surcharges - off regular freight invoices for nearly a decade. How did a combination-dial strongbox under an unmarked truck and one woman's instinct trigger a 14-month federal probe that led to nine indictments?
In this episode, we follow the sequence of events from a routine $42 pump-out to the federal inquiry named Operation Road Weight, tracing how a billing code called "route facilitation surcharge" and a small-town freight company sustained an invisible revenue stream - and ask how such a scheme could remain undetected for years.
Person: Denise Osborne
Event: Payphone tip to federal investigators
Case: Operation Road Weight
Duration: 14 months
Indictments: 9
- The truck had a combination dial and banded currency visible through an inspection window.
- Denise Osborne left a Millhaven Freight yard after a $42 pump-out and called from a payphone two miles away.
- Millhaven Freight was founded in 1987 and operated at least nine years before scrutiny.
- The surcharge amounts were $70 for a small load and $140 for a refrigerated run, billed twice monthly.
- George Callahan bowled twice weekly at Pinecroft Lanes with a 168 average and served as Millhaven's dispatcher since 1991. To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.
© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
5 SEP 2026 · The Green Ledger in the Drain: How a Birdwatcher Exposed a Pension Theft
A retired postal worker found a spiral-bound ledger wedged in a drainage grate after nineteen millimeters of rain, pages full of blue ballpoint accounting entries that contradicted the union's official forty-seven-page filing; how did a birdwatcher's habit uncover eight years of systematic theft from a three-hundred-forty person pension fund? What did those sixty-one pages reveal that the official records hid?
In this episode, we follow how a found ledger moved from a green corridor to an FBI forensic accountant and how decisions over three weeks determined whether the theft would be exposed or erased; we cover the ledger's discovery, the people linked to the entries, and the timing around the federal audit notice that triggered a desperate cover-up.
Person: Norman Watson
Date: April 9, 2004
Location: drainage channel behind Millhaven municipal cargo terminal
Case: Millhaven Local 228 pension fund ledger
Event: federal audit notice from Employee Benefits Security Administration in mid-March 2004
- The ledger was sixty-one pages of blue ballpoint on green accounting paper.
- The official filing with the state was forty-seven pages and had been hiding the ledger for eight years.
- The pension fund covered approximately 340 workers by 2004.
- Tristate Consolidators invoiced the pension fund for $86,000 in 2003 for services later deemed never rendered.
- Phil Moran pushed the ledger into the drainage channel on the night of April 8, 2004, after 19 millimeters of rain. To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.
© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
4 SEP 2026 · The Vending Machine That Burned a Town: How Meridian Extorted Route Owners
A single blurry photo taken at 4:40 AM on March 9, 2009 shows a fully stocked, humming vending machine thirty feet inside a scorched parking lot - contradicting an insurance claim that said it was destroyed and becoming Exhibit 114 in a federal racketeering trial. How did one photograph unravel eight years of arson, extortion, and forced sales across a four-county vending territory?
In this episode, we trace the sequence of events laid out in testimony and records: the rise of Meridian Service Group as a mid-size vending operation, the ledger entries and invoices that masked a protection racket, and the paperboy’s image that triggered investigators to ask whether Meridian’s ordinary business concealed criminal coercion. Could routine invoices and a spiral-bound notebook really be the key to proving years of deliberate fires and shakedowns?
Person: Warren Turner
Date: March 9, 2009
Location: Calloway Industrial Drive
Event: Depot fire with a running vending machine photographed
Case: Federal racketeering trial, Exhibit 114
- The photograph was taken at 4:40 AM on March 9, 2009 and later labeled Exhibit 114 in trial records.
- Meridian allegedly claimed 17 machines lost or unaccounted for in an insurance claim totaling $214,000.
- Approximately 40% of Meridian’s revenue was admitted to be from legitimate vending work.
- The pattern of pressure against independents began around 2001 and ran through roughly eight years with six fires documented by 2009.
- Meridian accounts-payable clerk Tracy Reynolds kept a spiral-bound notebook from about 2003 with dates, amounts, operator names, fee schedules, and entries including the word “referred.” To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.
© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
3 SEP 2026 · A Badge in the Snow: The Dennis Pruitt Murder Case
A dry, laminated city employee badge was found above the waterline of a storm drain nine days after Dennis Pruitt went missing - a badge that should have been wet or washed away. What began as a missing-person report unraveled into evidence of a quiet, four-year scheme that siphoned between $640,000 and $710,000 from the city's parking-meter system; who stepped on the wrong seam of that machine, and what happened to Pruitt?
In this episode, we tell the sequence of events from the morning Tammy Hayes found the badge to the clues in Pruitt’s private notebook and the surveillance footage that placed a white panel van near the drain. We follow the gaps in canister counts and the counting-room paperwork to ask whether noticing numbers that “don’t match” was enough to make someone a target.
Person: Dennis Pruitt
Date: February 11 (badge found); phone stopped pinging February 3; route on February 2
Location: Dellmore Avenue corridor
Event: Missing person and discovery of badge linked to parking-meter thefts
Amount: $640,000-$710,000 stolen over four years
- Badge was found face-up on a concrete ledge inside a storm drain, dry after nine days of melt.
- Pruitt’s phone stopped pinging at approximately 4:00 AM on February 3, about four blocks from the storm drain.
- On February 2, Pruitt serviced 14 meters between 1:00 and 3:00 PM; 11 canisters were logged and 3 were missing.
- Dellmore Avenue corridor generated an estimated $9,000 per week in coin revenue.
- Surveillance showed a white panel van registered to Dellmore Holdings on the corridor at 11:40 PM on February 2, stopped near the storm drain for about four minutes. To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.
© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
2 SEP 2026 · The $41,000 Restaurant Card That Exposed a Cold-Chain Conspiracy
A laminated restaurant reservation card bearing the name Castello's Grille and "41,000" written in red ink was found face-up on frozen gravel behind a cold-storage building in Callender, Ohio - a card linked not to a dining room but to a freight rail line and a mystery that would take investigators fourteen months to unravel. What did a $41,000 notation on a restaurant card have to do with a cold-storage annex, a majority-owned logistics company, and an unreported lockbox holding $814,000 and twenty-two names?
In this episode, we follow how a utility lineman's photograph and a Financial Crimes detective's persistence turned a discarded document into a federal-sized question about market control, hidden ledgers, and unexplained late-night freight deliveries. Who was responsible for the money trail that began with a simple reservation card and ended behind a false panel in a back office?
Person: Lauren Rice
Date: January 9, 2011
Location: Garfield Street annex, Callender, Ohio
Company: Callender Freight and Distribution (CFD)
Amount found later in lockbox: $814,000
- The card was discovered at 7:15 AM on a Tuesday morning in January, lying on frozen gravel at eleven degrees.
- The card front displayed "Castello's Grille" with a dark green fork-and-knife logo; the back had "forty-one thousand dollars" written in red ink and underlined once.
- CFD was acquired in 2004 by majority owner Harvey Doyle and grew from roughly 18% to over 70% of Callender's commercial cold-chain market by 2010.
- Fleet logs showed CFD refrigerated trucks arriving at the Garfield Street annex as late as 11:00 PM, despite no recorded staff on site past 5:00 PM.
- The lockbox behind a false panel was not opened until fourteen months after the card was found and accounted for $814,000 and twenty-two names. To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.
© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
1 SEP 2026 · The Creek Ledger: How a Runner Drowned a County's Secret Scheme
A dark green hardcover ledger stood upright in eight inches of clear water on the eastern bank of Cresset Creek on the morning of December 11, 2009 - its pages dry, closed, and cinched with a rubber band. Sixty-one coded entries across three years would link routine permit delays to weekly payoffs between $400 and $2,200; how did a jogger’s call set off the end of a fourteen-year racket?
In this episode, we follow how a runner found a ledger, a bookkeeper photographed a second set of suspicious records, and a two-person financial crimes unit used watermark and code patterns to map corruption through the county permit database - could sixty-one codes reveal who profited?
Person: Kelly Long
Person: April Mason
Person: David Davis
Person: Wayne Stewart
Date: December 11, 2009
- The ledger was found standing upright in eight inches of water at the eastern bank of Cresset Creek.
- The ledger contained sixty-one coded entries covering three years of records.
- Each coded entry corresponded to a business paying between $400 and $2,200 per week.
- Vincent Greer had run the Bureau of Permits and Licensing for eleven years as of 2009.
- April Mason had been David Davis’s bookkeeper and office manager for twenty-one years and was sixty-two in 2009. To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.
© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
31 AUG 2026 · The $94,000 in the Alley: How a Marina Man Bought Silence
Salt, diesel and the copper smell of cash - $94,000 in neatly banded stacks left in a marina service alley on November 4, 2014, exposed a seven-year scheme that monetized desperate boaters. Who organized the deposits, why the bills were banded and how a community maintained its silence until the boxes were found?
In this episode, we follow the discovery, the people connected to the marina and the paper trail that linked facilitation payments to accounts and a ledger on a laptop. How did routine paperwork, waiting lists and small weekly bets become a system that funneled cash and protected itself?
Date: November 4, 2014
Location: Westbrook Marina service alley
Amount: $94,000
Person: Earl Padgett
Case: facilitation premiums tracked on a personal laptop
- $94,000 in mostly $20 and $50 bills were found in three intact cardboard boxes in a service alley.
- Detective George Carlson arrived on scene at 8:15 a.m. after Padgett called at 8:00 a.m.
- The marina has 212 permanent slips and a long waiting list for slip allocation.
- Alleged facilitation payments ranged between $800 and $2,500 to move names up the waiting list.
- Kathleen Dalton’s bank account showed $17,000 more than her two-year salary could explain. To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.
© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
Ever wondered about the untold stories behind history's most audacious art heists? Priceless Crimes uncovers the thrilling world of Crime Network Files and the cunning minds who take them. Join...
show more
Ever wondered about the untold stories behind history's most audacious art heists? Priceless Crimes uncovers the thrilling world of Crime Network Files and the cunning minds who take them.
Join us as we delve into the shadowy realm of art theft, exploring everything from legendary museum robberies to intricate forgery schemes. We go beyond the headlines to reveal the meticulous planning, dramatic escapes, and often shocking fates of priceless artifacts.
New episodes arrive daily, Monday through Sunday, at 4:00 AM, bringing you a fresh dose of high-stakes intrigue. Each installment offers meticulously researched narratives, presenting a gripping account of the world's most infamous art criminals and the detectives who hunt them.
Priceless Crimes is for anyone fascinated by unsolved mysteries, true crime with a sophisticated twist, and the allure of hidden treasures. If you're captivated by the intersection of art history and criminal enterprise, this is your ultimate destination.
Subscribe now and unlock the secrets of the art world's greatest capers.
show less
Join us as we delve into the shadowy realm of art theft, exploring everything from legendary museum robberies to intricate forgery schemes. We go beyond the headlines to reveal the meticulous planning, dramatic escapes, and often shocking fates of priceless artifacts.
New episodes arrive daily, Monday through Sunday, at 4:00 AM, bringing you a fresh dose of high-stakes intrigue. Each installment offers meticulously researched narratives, presenting a gripping account of the world's most infamous art criminals and the detectives who hunt them.
Priceless Crimes is for anyone fascinated by unsolved mysteries, true crime with a sophisticated twist, and the allure of hidden treasures. If you're captivated by the intersection of art history and criminal enterprise, this is your ultimate destination.
Subscribe now and unlock the secrets of the art world's greatest capers.
Information
| Author | OBOMEDIA ENTERTAINMENT |
| Organization | OBOMEDIA ENTERTAINMENT |
| Categories | True Crime |
| Website | - |
| creators@obomedia.com |
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