Silver and gold ... maybe it's stolen

Gold and silver worth up to $3 million disappeared from a safe in a Coeur d'Alene home over the weekend.

A Kootenai County sheriff's report stated that a husband and wife had a domestic dispute on Dec. 9 and agreed not to be at their home at the same time. Three days later, on Sunday, the wife said she saw the safe at their home was open and four large bags of "assorted gold and silver" were missing.

The safe showed no signs of being forced open, the report said. Both husband and wife said no one else knew the combination to the safe.

A deputy said the wife told him each bag contained 750 to 1,000 ounces of gold or silver. The deputy said he did some research and based on current values of the metals, determined the gold was worth $2.7 million and the silver, $58,340.

According to the sheriff's report, the wife felt the husband "took the gold and silver out of fear of a possible upcoming divorce."

The husband "was adamant" he was not accusing his wife of taking the valuables. "However, he stopped just short of accusing her when asked who could have performed the theft without use of force," according to the report.