Pilfering documents has been around for a long time. It is easy money and libraries and repositories are not really equipped to stay on top of it.
One National Park service employee stole several hundred documents and photos, including pardons signed by James Madison, Abraham Lincoln and other presidents. He was caught and sentenced to 21 months, but 61 signed presidential pardons were not found.
Another Civil war historians tucked over 100 Civil War documents into his clothes and walked out of the National Archives including letters signed by Lee and Grant. He received two years, but the Archives never got back most of what he had stolen.
Dean Thomas contacted the Archives and was put in touch with Special Agent Kelly Maltagliati.
Rare books, maps and documents are not allowed to circulate, but they are also not locked away in vaults. They are there to be studied and inspected.
Thomas and Maltagliati immediately had a suspect as the name had accompanied the eBay. They phoned the Archive branch in Philadelphia, where the Frankford Arsenal documents had been moved in the 1980s. The eBay name, Denning McTague, was the same as a man who had just completed an unpaid, two-month internship at the branch.
Matague's business, Denning House Antiquarian Books and manuscripts, had been struggling, so he enrolled at a university to pursue a master's degree in information systems, hoping to get a job as a librarian.
Even with his business, the Philadelphia Archives branch hired him.
More to Come. --Old B-Runner
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