Police recover more than 40,000 stolen Bluey coins

Police in Australia say they have recovered around 40,000 limited-edition coins based on the hit children’s television show Bluey.

It was reported in July that 63,000 of the coins – produced by the Australian Mint – had been stolen from a warehouse in Western Sydney, about two months before they were due to enter circulation.

Authorities recovered 40,061 coins on Tuesday after a raid on a property about 6 miles (10km) from the storage facility.

Earlier that day, 27-year-old Christina Vale had been arrested and charged with breaking and entering and disposing of stolen property, police say. She was the third person arrested over the alleged theft.

The coins, which are worth A$1 ($0.65; 50p) a piece, were stolen two months before their planned release. New South Wales Police said they had previously been selling online for 10 times their face value.

Shortly after the theft was reported, NSW Police launched a special investigation into the incident codenamed Strike Force Bandit – after Bluey’s father.

In August, they arrested 44-year-old Steven Nielsen, who was an employee at the warehouse, and 44-year-old Nassar Kanj, who they say acted as his accomplice in the alleged heist.

Police will now argue in court that Ms Vale was the pair’s getaway driver.

The gold-coloured coins are known as Bluey dollarbucks – which is how money is referred to in the cartoon – and feature images of characters from the show.

The hit series, about the Heeler family of dogs, is made by Brisbane-based animation firm Ludo with BBC Studios and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Bluey has been a huge international success and is now broadcast in more than 60 countries including the UK, the US and China.

It was streamed for more than 20 billion minutes on Disney+ in the US last year, putting it in the country’s top 10 streaming programmes for minutes viewed.

There are more than 150 episodes of Bluey across three seasons, and a Bluey-themed “interactive experience” is opening in Brisbane next month.

The stolen coins are different from a collectable set of Bluey currency that caused a frenzy when it went on sale by the Royal Australian Mint in June this year.