Woman’s collection of rare, in-the-box Barbie dolls stolen
For Calgary collector Brandi Boothman, her stolen doll collection was worth far more than its monetary value. Stolen from her condo’s storage locker in late January, the collection of rare and still-in-the-box Barbie dolls represented a lifelong passion sparked by her mother.
“She would travel the world, and bring me back any Barbie dolls she would find,” Boothman said of her stolen collection.
Normally on display in her apartment, her collection of 36 dolls was temporarily moved to her storage locker over Christmas to make a little extra room. She was returning her Christmas decorations to the locker when she noticed the locker’s gate was wide open and several storage bins were missing. Contained in the missing bins, she said, was her doll collection.
“I was heartbroken, but I also felt violated,” she said, suspecting the thief is either a current or former resident of her Aspen Woods condo complex. The stolen collection is diverse, ranging from special edition, holiday-themed dolls to a collector’s set honouring characters from the 1939 film Gone with the Wind.
While she’s never had the collection formally appraised, she estimates it’s worth around $2,000.
More than anything, she hopes the thief will regret stealing the dolls and return them.
Boothman’s holding out hope somebody will see her dolls for sale somewhere and contact police.
She gets comfort from words her mother said to her in high school. “When my purse was stolen out of my locker, my mother would say to me, ‘It’s a terrible thing that happened, but all we can do is hope they needed those things more than you do,’ ” she recalled. “That always stuck with me.”
Anybody with information on the theft should call Calgary police at 403-266-1234, or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.