The robbery took place at about 2:30 a.m. at 420 Montgomery St., where the glass front of the building was left shattered and swarms of police officers were surveying what happened and what was stolen, a police investigator told NBC Bay Area. The three masked men who smashed the glass doors of the museum, held a security guard at gunpoint and stole the gold from a display case early Tuesday may have difficulty selling the nuggets unless they get melted down, he said. SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Thieves who rammed a stolen SUV into the Wells Fargo History Museum in downtown San Francisco and swiped historic gold nuggets worth roughly $10,000 could face a tough time selling the loot as news of the heist sweeps through the rare metal community, experts say. (Published Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015) 
 
 Three people wearing ski masks and armed with at least one gun stole gold nuggets from San Francisco's Wells Fargo History Museum Tuesday morning after they rammed an SUV into the building's entrance. Thieves in a sport utility vehicle smashed through the glass doors of the Wells Fargo History ... more Photo: Stephanie Mullen, Associated Press Image 10 of 14 Workers remove a damaged pane of glass at the Wells Fargo History Museum in San Francisco, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015. The glass case was smashed in a robbery that occurred on Tuesday, January 27, 2015 but the priceless scale was not stolen. The ripped-off nuggets and ore might be worth at least five times as much if they were able to be fenced for their historical value as Gold Rush-era artifacts — but that’s highly unlikely, said Don Kagin, a Tiburon gold and coin dealer who just published the book “Profit from Gold and Rare Coins Now.” 
 
 That’s because Kagin and every other dealer of note is already sending out notices of the theft to professional associations and sellers around the world. Two Bay Area men are doing prison time for the heist, but they never revealed what became of the gold. But Holabird said the nuggets could be worth two to 10 times the value of gold on the open market, an ounce of which sells for about $1,300. And now it’s just gone.” 
 
 Museum will be back 
 
 Wells Fargo said little Tuesday about the robbery, but spokesman Ruben Pulido issued a statement saying, “We’re disturbed this happened to the Wells Fargo History Museum, but are grateful no team member was harmed.” He said the museum, a popular attraction for schoolchildren that was redesigned last year, will reopen once the damage is cleared. The smash-and-grab tactic has marked other recent heists in San Francisco, including at a Patagonia store near Fisherman's Wharf last week when robbers backed a U-Haul van into the building, loaded it with high-end outdoor clothing and gear, and sped off. In a pair of November heists in the city’s Union Square, burglars busted into luxury boutiques — Chanel and Prada — and made off with handbags. Police said they have made no arrests but did not there have been several smash-and-grabs recently in the city. "It's pretty crazy," he said.
– Talk about brazen: Masked thieves smashed a stolen SUV into the site of Wells Fargo's original bank in San Francisco early this morning and made off with historic gold ore and nuggets, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Wearing hoodies and ski masks, they broke into display cases at the Wells Fargo History Museum and grabbed up to 10 ounces in nuggets worth around $10,000, notes the AP. They also held a security guard at gunpoint before driving off in a four-door getaway car. "This is terrible," says a maintenance worker across the street. "It’s a museum. People are crazy. They have no respect. This is where schools come on field trips." The robbers may struggle to profit without melting the nuggets, according to a rare coin dealer who says other dealers now know about the heist. But melting them would mean ruining possible markings about when and where each nugget was mined, and by whom, adds a mining geologist: "This is such bad news from my viewpoint," he says. On the bright side, NBC Bay Area reports that no one was hurt and historic stagecoaches at the museum weren't damaged. But the Bay Area has seen similar smash-and-grabs lately, including a U-Haul backed into a Patagonia store in January and a Pontiac Grand Am plowed into an Apple Store in May.