Crime / gold rush $2M in Gold, Gems Stolen From Calif. Gold Rush Museum But robbers left behind 14-pound gold nugget By Mary Papenfuss, Newser Staff Posted Oct 2, 2012 12:22 AM CDT Updated Oct 2, 2012 12:50 AM CDT Copied Hooded robbers armed with pickaxes burst into the California State Mining and Mineral Museum in Mariposa, Calif. (AP Photo/California State Parks, John Palmer) Police are hunting a pair of brazen "ninja" robbers in black wielding pickaxes who burst into a Sierra Nevada Gold Rush Museum in broad daylight and escaped with $2 million in gold and gems. No workers or visitors were injured, and the crooks failed to grab the biggest prize—a 14-pound crystalline gold "nugget"—at the Mariposa museum. “There’s just a lot of irreplaceable things that we’ll never get back that have been around since the Gold Rush days in this town,” a resident told CBS-TV in Sacramento. Earlier this year thieves grabbed large chunks of gold on display in a Siskiyou County courthouse. (More gold rush stories.) Report an error