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Tale of a teapot

by BILL BULEY
Staff Writer | August 9, 2010 9:00 PM

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<p>Carolyn Berry, co-owner of Wiggett's Marketplace, retells the story of how an antique teapot set was stolen from the Coeur d'Alene antique store. The same theives were arrested and are awaiting trial in Shoshone County.</p>

COEUR d'ALENE - Carolyn Berry loves to tell the history behind the items for sale at her Wiggett's Antiques store.

One little teapot has quite a tale to tell.

"People always ask, 'Do you know anything about this?' I can tell them, 'As a matter of fact, I do,'" Berry said.

She knows it perhaps too well.

The journey of the Liberty Blue teapot started when it was stolen from Wiggett's about six months ago. It was later recovered, then needed as evidence in a court case in Coeur d'Alene. Next, it was returned to its owner and went back up for sale for the $185 asking price, which includes a matching creamer and covered sugar bowl.

Good thing it hasn't sold.

It's needed for a second court appearance Tuesday.

"We thought we could sell," Berry said. "Then Shoshone (County Sheriff's Office) said, 'No, no, you can't sell it.'"

The story begins when a couple wandered into the Fourth Street shop earlier this year. The woman went to the front counter with an old plate and began asking the clerk for information about it, while the man walked down an aisle.

Berry, helping an older couple at the time, was immediately suspicious. It's an old tactic. One, the shill, distracts the employee, while the other looks for something valuable to take.

"I knew the guy was going to steal," she said. "I knew it."

But because she was working with other customers, she couldn't watch him closely. A few minutes later, the man returned to the woman and they left the store. Berry said it looked like he had something under his arm as his coat was bowed out, but she couldn't stop him.

In checking the video, she said it was obvious he had something under his jacket.

"I didn't know what it was," she said.

Berry, a former deputy, knew what to do.

Two years ago, someone stole a $1,400 pickle caster from Wiggett's and she tracked it down at a Spokane antique shop.

"I did my own police work to recover it," she said.

That incident led her to establish an e-mail system between antique stores in the area. If something is stolen, a picture is sent out to alert other shop owners to watch for it. A description of the suspects can be sent out, as well.

"You have to act quickly. It'll be fenced within three hours," she said.

In this case, Berry sent out the description via e-mail and a few days later, heard from an antique store in Wallace. A couple was there trying to sell a teapot, along with other items. The alert store clerk didn't buy it, and even got the license number of the couple's car.

Turned out to be a stolen one with Montana plates.

The car was stopped by deputies in Wallace, and the teapot and several other items were recovered, the couple arrested.

Coeur d'Alene police kept the teapot as evidence and the couple was held in jail until a court appearance. When they were released, the Shoshone County Sheriff's Office picked them up in connection with thefts there.

Berry said she believed they were professional thieves who steal and sell to fund their travels.

"It's a irregular racket," she said.

The teapot was returned to Wiggett's two months ago, but won't be there much longer.

"This little teapot is once again evidence," Berry said Friday.

Tuesday, it will go back to Shoshone County when the couple faces theft charges.

"So this little thing is making its rounds," she said.

Collectors can still put down $185 and own the English blue and white teapot, along with the matching creamer and sugar bowl that have historical pictures on them.

"We can still sell it," Berry said. "They just won't be able to get this piece until it's done being evidence in the trial."

Which could take up to six months.

Meantime, this well-traveled teapot is kept behind a locked cabinet door. Stolen, recovered, courtroom, sent back to the owner, then ordered back to court as evidence.

Berry even plans to chronicle its adventures and include it with the teapot for its next owner.

"People are always looking for history. We can tell people, this little teapot has history," she said.