Posted on 04/05/2006 1:21:38 AM PDT by happinesswithoutpeace
Cannon returned to museum after missing for nine years
Montana museum relic stolen by antiques thief who confessed to theft before he died in 2004
DILLON, Mont. - A small cannon, taken from the back room of a museum here by a compulsive antiques thief, has been returned nine years later.
Assistant police chief Paul Craft said it gave him "great pleasure" to return the cannon to the museum's board of directors of the Beaverhead County Museum on Thursday night.
The cannon, a handmade piece dating from the 1890s, was used in ceremonies when Dillon area soldiers went to war or to commemorate the Fourth of July. The relic went missing from the museum in 1997.
The cannon was among hundreds of antiques taken from small museums by Jeffry Stevens of Fallbrook Stevens' 35-year crime spree came to an end when he was caught prying decorations off an old car at a museum in Scobey in 2003.
His health failing, Stevens told federal Bureau of Land Management investigators what he remembered about his thefts so they could track down the artifacts, some of which he had put on consignment at a Salt Lake City antiques store. Stevens died of a heart attack in November 2004.
A federal investigator contacted museum board member Lynn Westad last year, saying he had a lead on the cannon. It had been for sale at Sell Antiques in Salt Lake City for five years before selling for $630.
Craft contacted the U.S. attorney's office in Salt Lake City and obtained the records from Sell Antiques, which showed the cannon was sold to John Gangel of Orange.
Gangel sold the cannon through his antiques store in April 2003, but had no record of who bought it.
After months of back-and-forth between Craft and Gangel, the store offered a $500 reward, plus the cost of the cannon, for its return. It showed up within days. Gangel shipped it to Dillon three weeks ago.
Craft said he kept the 75-pound cannon in the middle of his living room until he could present it to the museum board.
"I hardly let it out of my sight," he said.
Museum Director Lyle Denchant said his organization is grateful for Craft's persistence.
"Years and years passed and a lot of people forgot about it, but the police never did and came through," Denchant said.
I need to start browsing antique stores! (It was a little piece but I would have snatched it up anyway!)
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