First of all, let me say that I have no knowledge of where the chips came from that Matt Lehman says he purchased at a flea market ... nor of the accuracy of the conflicting dates that have been given as to the actual date of the burglary of similar chips. I pass no judgement on the guilt or innocence of the parties involved.

I do know this, from first-hand experience, when I purchased a powder blue 1983 Olds Cutlass Salon with less than 8,000 miles on it back in 1985 from a private party in Seaside Park, NJ. I "owned" the car I purchased for cash for two and a half years and took the car for regular servicing to a local GM dealer during that time the car was in my possession and had renewed the annual registration twice with the NJ State Department of Motor Vehicles with no problems.

An FBI agent knocked on my door one day in 1987 and asked if that was my Olds Cutlass parked in the driveway and I replied "yes, it is". I cooperated with the investigation and it was determined that I had been duped by a con man over two and half years earlier who was wanted for forgery of federal documents and they were just now catching up with me.

To make a long story short ... I hired an attorney. The car turned out to be stolen and the title was forged and GMAC wanted their car back because there was a $5,000 loan that was still outstanding on the vehicle ...

While the judge sympathized with my plight and agreed that I was an innocent victim ...; in ordering that I had to give up the car, he made the anaology that if my next door neighbor's TV set was stolen and it was later "found" being used in a home two blocks away ... that the stolen property had to be returned to the rightful owner (GMAC in my case) in spite of being illegally re-sold.

I post this story ... not because of the Star Broiler chips story posted above, but to caution anyone about purchasing valuable chips from a questionable source (such as at a flea market or from unknown persons). You may wind up having to give them back IF it turns out that they were stolen property.

Steve Passalacqua can tell you another first-hand story about stolen casino chips that he purchased several years ago (and VOLUNTARILY returned them to their rightful owner) ... but that's another interesting story for another time.