Balsam Antique Mall

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CLOSED NOW - Opens at 9:30am

This was the last stop on a 3 day junk shopping spree. We stayed in the area to go to this mall and a few others in the morning then head home. Typical "antique mall' for the area, some nice booths, others filled with garage sale junk. We were in the store for approximately 30-35 minutes and had already found something, which I brought to the counter. I went back to my partner and we noticed a police officer down the main aisle. We thought he was saying hello to a friend at the store, when he approached us.

In reality, the man running the store (owner or not) called the county sheriff on us and we were told this man was accusing us of stealing buffalo nickels. He had found a case in which he told the police was broken into and there were buffalo nickels missing (some worth 'hundreds' of dollars)

After talking with 2 of the THREE policemen that showed up for 1/2 hour or so, they were assured we were not the culprits. We emptied our pockets, even showed them the contents of our vehicle (tho we had never left the store after we got there) Mind you, I am 50 years old and the partner is 63 with a heart condition.

We were never face to face with this accuser - nor did we return to the inside of this business after we went outside to talk with two of the officers. This ordeal ran the whole gamut: shock, surprise, laughter, depression - this was truly the worst experience I have had since being in downtown Washington DC on 9/11

How this idiot came to the conclusion that we were responsible for what had happened to this display case & coins is beyond me. From our conversations, I am sure that is what the officers were thinking, also! They were intelligent and courteous, unlike the person running this establishment.

This was OUR experience with "Balsam Antique Mall" - who knows, maybe yours will be better!

Stopped to find some treasures and ended up being accused of theft of buffalo nickel coins. Had police question us in store, we had nothing to hide being innocent "American Pickers" - We were fully cooperative with the wonderful police officers, showed them what we had on our beings, and even showed them our vehicle contents. (we never left the store during the 30-45 minutes we were there) Whatever possessed this man behind the counter to think we were responsible for a display case being broken into and coins taken is beyond me. This man had terrible, terrible judgment and I know from the conversation we had with the county police they probably thought the same. This man is a horrible, horrible person for doing what he did to us. We have been in literally hundreds of antique malls across the country and this is by far one of THE worst experiences I have had in my life. I am sure this place will soon be out of business like the other antique malls near it -

Stopped to find some treasures and ended up being accused of theft of buffalo nickel coins. Had police question us in store, we had nothing to hide being innocent "American Pickers" - We were fully cooperative with the wonderful police officers, showed them what we had on our beings, and even showed them our vehicle contents. (we never left the store during the 30-45 minutes we were there) Whatever possessed this man behind the counter to think we were responsible for a display case being broken into and coins taken is beyond me. This man had terrible, terrible judgment and I know from the conversation we had with the county police they probably thought the same. This man is a horrible, horrible person for doing what he did to us. We have been in literally hundreds of antique malls across the country and this is by far one of THE worst experiences I have had in my life. I am sure this place will soon be out of business like the other antique malls near it -