Posted on 05/04/2012 6:30:41 PM PDT by iowamark
When J. David Goldin saw the recorded interview of baseball great Babe Ruth for sale on eBay he knew something was wrong. There was only one original record of that 1937 interview of Ruth on a hunting trip, and Goldin had donated it to a government archive more than 30 years ago. Now someone was auctioning it off, the winning bid just $34.75.
"I took one look at the record label and I said, 'holy smokes, that's my record,'" said the retired radio engineer.
From his home in Connecticut, filled with antique radios and tape reels, Goldin launched an amateur sleuthing effort that helped uncover a thief ripping off the country's most important repository of historical records. The heist turned out to be an inside job. The culprit was the recently retired head of the video and sound branch of the National Archives and Records Administration — the government agency entrusted with preserving such documents as the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.
On Thursday, a judge in Maryland sentenced the thief, Leslie Charles Waffen, to a year and a half in prison and fined him $10,000. Waffen, who had worked at the National Archives for 40 years, acknowledged stealing thousands of sound recordings from the archive. Prosecutors said more than 1,000 were sold on eBay in thefts that started as early as 2001. The stolen recordings ranged from a recording of the 1948 World Series to an eyewitness report of the Hindenburg crash.
It was Goldin's meticulous record-keeping and some sleuthing worthy of a modern-day detective drama, however, that brought Waffen to authorities' attention and helped catch him...
In September 2010, however, he typed one of his routine searches for records into eBay and saw the Babe Ruth recording for sale...
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
Great story!
I still chuckle : )
A former workmate of mine spent two years in prison for shoplifting. Once a very sharp guy before John Barleycorn took him down.
He's sleeping in the car when his girlfriend is caught stealing from Target. The cops ask the girlfriend if anyone is with her? Yes my boyfriend is in the car. Now he's an accessory.
Yes he had three or four past alcoholic 'events'. The worst was showing up for court drunk (90 days) I guess he got a bad name at the court house for they sentenced him to three years.
He was out in two but went from drinking to drugs to dead.
Sad. This one steals truckloads from the tax payers,,. must have had a better lawyer.
As I said there the other day...@There seem to be lots of problems at NARA as the reports detail.
Beat me to it. First thing I thought of.
Finally, I got the post in first. Usually I'm way late. Ahhhhh!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.