Jun 30, 2005 3:30 pm US/Mountain
Historical Document Thieves Go Hi-Tech
Salt Lake Book Dealer Helps Track Book Thieves
Philadelphia, PA A researcher at the National Archives tucks valuable
historical documents into his clothes and walks out. In Philadelphia, an
archives employee strolls out with valuable historic material. A court
docket sheet from Leon Czolgosz's trial for the 1901 assassination of
President William McKinley disappears from a dusty, oversized ledger in
Buffalo, N.Y.
In all three cases, some of the booty winds up posted for sale online.
Welcome to the new frontier of theft, where good things sometimes come in
tattered, musty packages - and can often be fenced to faceless buyers
thousands of miles away.
The Internet is making it easier for thieves to sell stolen historic relics,
often to unsuspecting buyers, but it's also helping authorities track down
missing documents and those who took them.
Historians and dealers say the popular PBS treasures-in-attic program
"Antiques Roadshow" has made the general public aware of how valuable
historical treasures can be, and the Internet can provide a ready and
anonymous marketplace for the unscrupulous.
"It's the mighty confluence where ignorance meets greed," said Salt Lake
City rare book dealer Ken Sanders. Sanders, former chairman of the security
committee for the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America, has helped
track book thieves across the country and internationally.
Paul Brachfeld, inspector general of the National Archives, said technology
has increased the speed of sales and the magnitude of the problem.
"In the old days, it was harder to trade documents. But, you can basically
sell a document today and post it and somebody can sell it tomorrow - it's
that fluid," he said.
The technology, however, is a "double-edged sword," Brachfeld said.
"The problem is increasing, but it also gives us some really good
investigative tools," Brachfeld said. "We can now look at what's being
traded and sold just like the people who are interested in buying these
items."
To that end, the National Archives has made an agreement with another
archival entity - which Brachfeld will not name - to help keep track of what
is being sold.
Sanders said technology also allows word of stolen items to be sent
instantly to a network of 2,000 bookstores around the world.
Knowledgeable Web users also help.
Last year, Gettysburg-area historian Wayne E. Motts was tipped off by a
friend about a historic document for sale on eBay. It was a letter signed by
an Army officer named Lewis A. Armistead, who became a Confederate general
and died leading his brigade in the ill-fated Pickett's Charge at the battle
of Gettysburg.
Motts, the director of the Adams County Historical Society, had done his
master's thesis on Armistead and recognized the three-page letter as one he
had seen a decade earlier in the National Archives in Washington. What's
more, he had the evidence to prove it - he had photocopied it.
"My heart sank when I went down to my file and compared it," said Motts, who
knew immediately that the document, if genuine, must have been stolen.
The result was the arrest of Howard Harner, 68, of Staunton, Va., who from
1996 to 2002 hid 102 documents in his clothes to smuggle them out of a
National Archives research room and sold them to a history buff and through
various auctions. The documents included some signed by Confederate
President Jefferson Davis and Generals Philip Sheridan and George A. Custer.
"These were treasures, they really were national treasures of our nation's
past, and just as a person working in that field, you hate to see that kind
of material go away," Motts said.
Harner pleaded guilty and was sentenced in May to two years in prison. Motts
was honored June 13 at the National Archives for his role in bringing the
thefts to light. Lined up on a cart during the presentation were 42 of the
stolen documents - all that had been recovered.
In 2002, former government archivist Shawn P. Aubitz was sentenced to 21
months in prison for stealing hundreds of historic documents beginning in
1996 while curator at the National Archives branch in Philadelphia. Like
Harner, his thefts were uncovered when a National Park Service worker
noticed one of the documents posted for sale on eBay.
In the Buffalo case, authorities couldn't determine when the docket was
stolen, but the document was returned to its rightful home.
Sanders, the rare book dealer, also worries that criminals will become more
brazen in their thefts. He pointed to a Kentucky case, where several men
used a stun gun to subdue a librarian before stealing three rare books.
"The question I hate the worst in the store is 'What's the most valuable
book you've got in here?'" Sanders said. "But I guess I've gotten awfully
suspicious from doing security work for six years. It's a dark, dark world
out there."