ALBURGH, VERMONT – It took months for anyone to discover that an eccentric man known simply as Radkin had died, crushed under a tractor-pulled horse trailer on his property on the shores of Lake Champlain in northern Vermont. But it didn’t take long for looters to ransack the hoarder’s dilapidated house, hauling off antiques, a vehicle, scrap metal and more than $200,000 in gold coins.
Four people, including at least one whom police suspect knew the 66-year-old Radkin, are facing charges of stealing the coins and cashing them in at coin and jewelry stores. Police expect to make more arrests.
The property includes a dilapidated brick house and outbuildings full to the brim with stuff.
“What it is is a hoarder’s house,” said Vermont State Police Sgt. Morris Lamothe, who is investigating the burglaries. “The exterior is covered in outbuildings, cars, trailers, and every one one of them is full — I mean full — to the top. . . . The rooms, you can’t walk through them.”
Charged are Ricky Benjamin, 35, Mark Mumley, 52, and Shawn Farrell, 41, who have significant prior records. Mumley is being held on $75,000 bail and Benjamin was released on bail.
Police said Thursday the defendants sold coins ranging in value from $350 to $1,800 to coin and jewelry dealers in another county after allegedly claiming they had inherited them.
But the number of coins coming in was a red flag for one dealer, who called police in September. The coins turned out to be British sovereigns, and investigators have recovered $5,000 worth so far.
A friend of Radkin wasn’t surprised that he had them.
“I’m surprised by how much he had,” said Van Powell, mechanical shop manager for the Shelburne Shipyard, where Radkin once worked and is adjacent to where he used to live.
“Radkin was inclined to acquire stuff whether he needed it or not. At one point, he had five or six MGs, none of them running. He had multiple tractors, trucks. He had at least 20 or 30 vehicles; some of them would run, most of them didn’t. He had, at one point, six or seven pianos, and he just kept them in the front yard of his house covered with canvasses, and I just thought that was odd because he was quite a good musician.”
People either loved Radkin or hated him, he said.
Neighbors had feuded with him in Alburgh, where he had been known to run around his property naked, said John Fleury, who has a camp across the road from Radkin’s property. “Radkin was very, very rude,” he said.