--- title: Man Goes to Prison for Smuggling Gold in Rectum description: A Canadian man who stole gold from the Royal Canadian Mint was sentenced to 30 months in prison. canonical: https://time.com/4658663/gold-smuggling-prison-sentence/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-02-02T21:34:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:40:44.805Z og:title: Man Gets Prison Sentence for Smuggling Gold in His Rectum og:description: A new meaning to stealing the booty og:url: https://time.com/4658663/gold-smuggling-prison-sentence/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Man Gets Prison Sentence for Smuggling Gold in His Rectum twitter:description: A new meaning to stealing the booty twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Former Mint Employee Who Smuggled Gold in His Rectum Sentenced to Prison by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Feb 2, 2017 9:34 PM UTC by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Feb 2, 2017 9:34 PM UTC A [Canadian](http://time.com/4652977/canada-temporary-residence-trump-immigration-ban/) man has been sentenced to 30 months in prison after a judge ruled that stole gold from the Royal Canadian Mint. [According](http://www.570news.com/2017/02/02/mint-employee-who-hid-stolen-gold-in-his-rectum-to-be-sentenced-today/) to Ontario, Canada-based 570 News, Leston Lawrence, 35, hid the gold “pucks” in his rectum in order to bypass metal detectors. Lawrence was [found guilty](http://time.com/4566471/canada-mint-employee-steals-gold-uses-butt/) of laundering the pucks through Ottawa Gold Buyers in November. On Thursday, Judge Peter Doody ruled Lawrence had robbed the mint of 22 gold nuggets worth $165,451.14\. He ordered him to pay $190,000 in restitution, on Thursday. In his ruling, Doody noted the prison sentence will serve to deter others. Lawrence, who reportedly worked at the Canadian Mint from 2008 until March 2015, first aroused suspicion when he cashed two checks worth $15,200 from Ottawa Gold Buyers. The bank alerted the police, who then began surveillance on him. When police investigated Lawrence’s safety deposit box, they found four gold nuggets along with Vaseline and latex gloves, which Doody said “could have been used to facilitate insertion of gold items inside his rectum.” So far, no decision has been made about an appeal. \[[570 News\]](http://www.570news.com/2017/02/02/mint-employee-who-hid-stolen-gold-in-his-rectum-to-be-sentenced-today/) Man Goes to Prison for Smuggling Gold in Rectum ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4658663/gold-smuggling-prison-sentence/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4658663/gold-smuggling-prison-sentence/"},"headline":"Former Mint Employee Who Smuggled Gold in His Rectum Sentenced to Prison","datePublished":"2017-02-02T21:34:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:40:44.805Z","description":"It gives a new meaning to stealing the booty","url":"https://time.com/4658663/gold-smuggling-prison-sentence/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Crime","Bizarre","Canada","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4658663/gold-smuggling-prison-sentence/","name":"Former Mint Employee Who Smuggled Gold in His Rectum Sentenced to Prison"}}]}] ```