[MSN] A thief stole valuable historic books and documents from libraries across the nation and Canada and then allegedly peddled the spoils on the popular eBay auction Web site from Great Falls, according to a librarian in Washington state.

[MSN]

Book thief's trail leads to Electric City
By RICHARD ECKE 
Tribune Staff Writer 

A thief stole valuable historic books and documents from libraries across
the nation and Canada and then allegedly peddled the spoils on the popular
eBay auction Web site from Great Falls, according to a librarian in
Washington state.

But Rob Lopresti, librarian at Western Washington University in Bellingham,
did not take the thefts from his library sitting down.

"I'm glad we did something," said Lopresti, who was portrayed as the hero of
the theft case in an article in the April issue of Smithsonian magazine.

Great Falls Police detective Bruce McDermott said this week he could not yet
comment on the wide-ranging case, and no arrests have been made.

But in a Tribune interview Wednesday, Lopresti said he had been trying for
months to get someone to hear his pleas about a thief selling pilfered
documents and books on eBay.

Then a university police officer got in touch with Great Falls Police.
Lopresti said he is "delighted" by how McDermott responded.

"I think he's done a great job," Lopresti said.

Lopresti's library was a victim of larceny in February 2006, on a day he
says the WWU library was closed. He thinks the thief got himself locked into
the library, and then stole documents and books with impunity.

About 100 volumes of a book series called the Congressional Serial Set,
dating back to the 1830s, had maps and other pages ripped from them. In all,
the thief ripped 648 pages of historic lithographs, maps and other materials
from the WWU library's collection, according to the magazine article.

After the crime, Lopresti resolved to try to find out what happened to the
documents. He spotted several of them on eBay. For instance, he spied one
photo of a document for sale on eBay, and "you could see the tear marks
matched our book."

According to the Smithsonian article, Lopresti had friends back East buy
some of the stolen documents. Authorities then were able to match items to
books in the WWU library.

Lopresti said he provided information to authorities that enabled Great
Falls police to obtain a search warrant. According to the Smithsonian story,
police used the warrant to search a Great Falls house Dec. 12. The article
said authorities discovered a treasure trove of stolen property - about
1,000 books from the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries that had been
stolen from at least 100 university and local libraries across the country,
and some 20,000 pages of documents that apparently had been torn from books.

The widespread thefts have remained little known for some time. For
instance, Jim Heckel, director of the Great Falls Public Library, said
Wednesday he was not familiar with the crimes and could not say if the Great
Falls library had been victimized.

"I can't say that there has been a theft and I can't say there hasn't been a
theft," Heckel said.

It's not certain when the full scope of the thievery will be known, though
the case won't mark the first time pilfered goods were sold on the Internet.
Officials at eBay maintain that's the exception, rather than the rule.

"We work tirelessly to prevent stolen goods from being sold through the eBay
marketplace because the sale of stolen goods on eBay undermines our users'
trust and harms our community and our business," the company said on its
eBay Government Relations Web site. The company claims to have 318,000 eBay
users in Montana, virtually one-third of the state's population.

Lopresti finds his celebrity "a little embarrassing," but he acknowledged he
was angry and upset by the thefts from the WWU library.

"You don't want to see it happen in your library," he said.

Lopresti said he had already locked up many valuable documents held by the
WWU library, but he has gotten more tough-minded since the February 2006
crimes.

"We have locked up everything that anybody could want (to steal)," he said.

Lopresti said he doesn't blame Great Falls in general, even if the thief who
stole from his library might live in the Electric City.

"There are bad people everywhere," Lopresti said.

Reach Tribune Staff Writer Richard Ecke at recke at greatfallstribune.com, or
at 406-791-1467 or 800-438-6600.

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/