The Collector

Everybody has a collection. Even if you believe you're not into the hobby, I guarantee you have a group of something or other. Perhaps you like books? I'm sure you have a bookshelf somewhere in your house, flat or bungalow. Ok, maybe you prefer to read for free online. That's understandable. Yet, you might have a video game console, I bet you got a collection of games to play on it, even if you only buy digital games, that's still a virtual library of them right? You might have a Kindle device full of ebooks, even if it's just two or three, even that is a small collection. You could even argue that owning a bunch of different socks is a collection. Most people probably don't collect things as a hobby, more accurately keep things that look nice and place them around the living room for decoration or convenience such as a collection of dining chairs for whenever you want to sit down. That's what the average Joe does, collects stuff without really thinking about it. However, this story isn't about the ordinary plain Jane, but Norman Mitchell, a collector of all things pop culture and antique. This man lived alone and wasn't very social, so he spent his money and time hoarding junk! That's putting it bluntly, because an old faded comic book might be meaningless to some, but to others it's a rare, vintage copy of a limited edition super hero story, that some might pay thousands of dollars for. A small kid might read it and throw it away, but a collector like Norman would practically frame it in a sealed bag, box or container and display it as a fabulous trophy upon his bedroom wall. That's exactly what Norman did, his rarest items were considered fabulous pieces of art, secured and locked away from human hands, yet visible to himself and anyone (there weren't many guests) who came to visit him. This man had stacks and stacks of boxed VHS tapes, vinyls, comics, rare leather bound books, mint condition action figures (still in their original packaging!) of every super hero or sci-fi character you could possibly imagine (literally, name even the most obscure, unknown, unpopular character and he'd probably own some variant of it), he had a collection of different watches, from bronze to gold; not just wrist watches either, but pocket watches too. Norman owned several retro gaming consoles, dating as far back as 1981. His whole house was a treasure trove of priceless collectables. Although Norman was incredibly shy, antisocial and introverted; this collector had developed an unwanted reputation as an Antique Vulture, somebody who swoops in and buys all the cool, rare stuff before anybody else has a chance to get their greedy hands on them. Norman seemed to have an extraordinary amount of wealth (many speculated that he flipped most of his rare collectables for huge profits, as he was often seen at pawnshops in and out of New York, either buying and selling), which meant that he very often outbidded most collectors at auctions, even those who miraculously out bought Norman would walk away paying way more for an item than it was even worth, or would ever be worth. Norman did this for years, no decades! All the way up to his late fifties, until one day he was nowhere to be seen. He stopped showing up at pawn shops, auctions ran properly with mixed buyers walking away happy and content with their purchases. Nobody in the antique community missed Norman, because the man never spoke to anyone, seemed rather impolite, snobby and always ran away with most of the best loot. Then one day, the newspapers ran a truly harrowing story, the headline read; "Infamous Antique Vulture, Norman Mitchell, found murdered in his private estate!" with a picture of the miserable old man, alive and well on the front cover sneering. It was a tasteless piece, even Norman's greatest enemies thought so too. He was a strange icon or legend in the Antique business. One not many liked, but a lot also admired or more accurately envied his success at collecting. He was truly the best of the best, even if he did piss everyone else off. What really mattered though was who exactly was behind this strange man's murder. There are a few clues that police tried to follow upon, but these ultimately led nowhere.

These being:
The killer didn't just murder Norman, he and a team of masked burglars also broke into his estate and stole almost everything that Norman had collected.
Sometime before Norman's body was discovered, pawnshops all over the city were suddenly overstocked with extraordinarily rare goods, some of which were even proven to have belonged to Norman previously.
The killer may not have even intended to kill Norman, instead this was simply a robbery gone horribly wrong.

The surveillance cameras that surrounded Norman's estate had unfortunately been hacked and wiped clean of evidence, whoever had killed and stole from Norman knew exactly what they were doing, meaning this must've been planned well in advance. Not even New York's greatest detectives could track down these mysterious hackers and thieves. The mystery is still left unsolved to this very day.