Who would expect that browsing through eBay could involve them in a major government sting operation? But that’s exactly what happened to eBay shopper and Civil War buff Dean Thomas. When he recognized an eBay seller’s offerings as documents that belonged in the National Archives, he got into something a bit bigger than he expected.
Dean’s relationship with the National Archives started with his brother, Jim. Searching for a gift for his Civil War-loving brother, Jim came across some Civil War letters for sale on eBay. Wanting to make sure Dean would like them, he had his brother take a look before buying. Dean loved the letters… but felt a bit strange about them. How had he never heard of them before?
Then Dean started to look a little more deeply into this particular seller’s offerings. Among them was another letter-- and this one Dean recognized. Sifting through his files, he found a photocopy he’d made years ago of the very same Civil War letter. He’d made the copy while looking through historical materials at the National Archives... after all, he couldn’t take it with him, as taking documents from the National Archives is illegal.
Dean immediately understood that the National Archives had been robbed. Comparing his files to the eBay seller’s documents, Dean found that he had copies from the National Archives for a total of four documents. But the big question was, how much had this seller stolen?
Answering it would turn out to be the hard part. Upon discovering the crime, Dean called the National Archives and spoke with a special agent. While they had a good idea of who the suspect was --after all, his full name and address were part of his eBay account-- what they didn’t know was how much had been stolen. The National Archives doesn’t have a full record of what’s in the archives-- anything could have been missing.
Soon, Dean was pulled into a sting operation for the National Archives. The agent asked him to contact the suspect, Denning McTague, to request to meet to discuss buying more letters. And on an early morning in October, 2006, a team of federal raiders and representatives from the National Archives swarmed McTague’s Philadelphia apartment. McTague wasn’t home, and, somewhat anticlimactically, the National Archives and the raiders got a quick confession out of McTague over the phone.
It turns out McTague worked as an intern at the National Archives for several months. His supervisor even remembers McTague showing him some of the more interesting documents he came across-- many of which were part of the 164 (or more) documents he ended up stealing.
McTague wasn’t the first to steal from the National Archives, and probably won’t be the last. To learn more about the National Archives --including what else has gone missing-- visit the Smithsonian Magazine Website at the following link: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment