Massive gold nugget dating back to California gold rush stolen in Long Beach

$80K gold nugget stolen from Long Beach expo

A gold nugget worth more than $80,000 was taken from a booth at a Long Beach expo. The nugget dates back to the California Gold Rush. There's a $10,000 reward for the piece of history.

LONG BEACH, Calif. - A gold nugget worth $82,000 was recently stolen from a coin expo in Long Beach, and a $10,000 reward is being offered for its retrieval.

Bob Campbell is a coin dealer out of Utah, and the owner of the nugget. Security footage captured the moment a man broke into one of the displays at his booth and pocketed the piece of gold.

According to Campbell, a small defect in the case allowed the thief to get in.

"He's trying locks, looks to see who's watching," Campbell said of the security footage.

The footage shows the man seeming to press on the display case. About 30 seconds later, he has the nugget, walks away and takes a glance behind him to see if anyone noticed what he just did.

The nugget contains approximately 27 ounces of gold. Campbell said it's the biggest loss he's ever suffered at a coin show. But the gold isn't the only thing that makes this nugget valuable, it's also its history.

This nugget was discovered during California's gold rush in a creek about 50 miles from the Oregon border.

Campbell said that many of the nuggets found from that time "are melted. So to find a big nugget like that — 27 ounces — that has survived that long? Pretty rare, pretty unusual."

That's his biggest concern, that the piece will be melted down for the value of the gold with disregard for the piece's history.

"The bigger the nugget, the more they're worth," said Campbell. "It's not uncommon to see them go for two, three, even four times the gold value."

Campbell hopes that someone will recognize the man from the security footage, and he'll be able to get his gold nugget back.