Postage Due : Santa Ana Collector Charged in Theft of Thousands of Rare Stamps

Detectives watched silently as the owlish man sat thumbing through rare stamps at a collectors exposition at the Long Beach Convention Center. They thought they had the case licked hours later when they say he walked away with unpaid items in his briefcase.

But Long Beach police didn’t know what they were up against until hours later, when they walked into the one-bedroom apartment of suspect Richard Pulsifer. Filed neatly in his otherwise messy Santa Ana apartment were rare stamps worth more than $1 million--most of them allegedly stolen, according to police.

Pulsifer was arrested, charged with grand theft and released on bail after pleading not guilty this week.

Now, police face the daunting task of trying to return tens of thousands of stamps to their owners. Without a clue as to where the stamps originated, detectives say, they may have to hold a few private stamp shows of their own. Whether they advertise the discovery through the Internet or through collectors associations, detectives say, they have no clues except the handwriting on some packages of stamps.

Police laid out the stamps for reporters Wednesday in an effort to get the word out to dealers. In a loosely organized exhibit that filled a conference table, detectives displayed a colorful variety of foreign and U.S. stamps, some of them rare pieces worth more than $250 each.

“We’re going to have to trust the dealers,” Det. Quentin Manes said.

Complicating things, police say, Pulsifer has collected stamps all of his life, and some of the stamps rightfully belong to him.

“We’re gonna have to give his [stamps] back,” Manes said. “We can’t keep his just because he stole others.”

Police found hope of locating rightful owners in one detail, however: Pulsifer, 42, never learned to drive. A reclusive cabinetmaker with few friends, Pulsifer told police he never ventured to stamp conventions beyond the reach of public transportation.

Even so, recent stamp collectors’ conventions in the area have drawn dealers from across the United States. Contacting them all--and cataloging their losses--could prove difficult, philatelic authorities say.

“Unless a person has kept very, very careful records and has photographed these stamps . . . it’s going to be almost impossible,” said Joe Savarese, executive vice president of the New York-based American Stamp Dealers Assn.

Asking which dealers have lost merchandise to thieves won’t help much, experts say.

Stamp insurer W. Danforth Walker says he receives 25 to 50 claims a year from merchants who say they have had goods stolen from their convention booths. The losses usually vary from $1,000 to $200,000, said Danforth, who insures 14,000 stamp collectors and 1,000 dealers nationwide through the American Philatelic Society.

“It just so happens that stamps are easier to move from stock books to pockets because of their size and weight,” said Mercer Bristow, who authenticates rare stamps for the American Philatelic Society.

Police say Pulsifer’s slick system was the key to amassing his booty.

His method, they say, was to sit at the modestly priced stamps section of a dealer’s booth, where he attracted little attention, while making two piles of stamp sheets, one of low-priced stamps and another of pricier ones.

After he covered the more expensive stamps with a list of supposedly desired specimens, police say he paid for the cheaper items, tucking the others into his briefcase. The process often took many hours, they said, during which time he remained oblivious to those around him, including undercover police.

“He had a great system for it,” Manes said. “He would act as if he was shuffling stuff around.”

Stamp dealer Ken Greenberg says he did not suspect Pulsifer--a repeat customer--until another vendor advised him last Thursday to watch out. Although Greenberg never caught him robbing, he said Pulsifer’s supposed system would be quite effective.

“He would appear to be studious-like, engrossed in picking out different stamps,” Greenberg said.

Police say Pulsifer acknowledged taking stamps at recent conventions in Anaheim, Buena Park and one in Long Beach in October. He said he occasionally sold the stamps to make ends meet, they said.

But Pulsifer pleaded not guilty Monday to grand theft charges, and a pretrial hearing is set for Feb. 15. He could not be reached for comment. Even if he is found guilty, Manes said, it would be his first conviction and he would receive a light sentence.

Still, Manes said, “I think we probably won’t be having any more problems with him.”