A Professor Helps Smithsonian Catch The Curator-Thief

[wacoavn]

Apparently Alan Toelle provided some assistance in catching an employee of the Smithsonian who stole and then sold off aviation artifacts.

From the Feb. 17 issue of the NY Times:

A Professor Helps Smithsonian Catch The Curator-Thief - New York Times

[FOKKERJ]

Hi wacoavn,

Thanks for the heads up!
Very interesting, the "Good Guys" do good!
The bad guy gets lightly spanked,
but won't continue in a trusted position.

Maybe the bad guy should enter politics!

Thanks for sharing, FOKKERJ

[Dan_San_Abbott]

Gentlemen:
I think that kurt schneide got off too easy, six months? How about six tears?
Very dark skies,
Dan-San

[Germanophile-1]

Does anyone know what ever became of Karl Schneide? At one point, he was a rising star among WW I aviation historians. A few years ago, on a visit to the Bundesarchiv Militaerarchiv in Freiburg, Germany, I found Schneide's name on a check-in sheet attached to WW I files that I needed for a project. At the time of his visit to Freiburg, he was representing the NASM.

What a sad story.

Peter

[baldeagle]

That's from 1996, why would it be on the NYT web site today?

[Der Grüne Flieger]

Let me see if I understand this;

He was upset that the artifacts were not being properly cared for, so he stole them and sold them off to collectors who may or may not know anything about properly caring for WW1 memorabilia.

Having punished us by taking away our toys and selling them, he decided he needed to cleanse his karma by overhauling an Austin Healey.

Yeah,....... that makes sense to me. I agree with Dan-San, he got off too easy.

Phil

[StephenLawson]

Originally Posted by Der Grüne Flieger

Let me see if I understand this;

He was upset that the artifacts were not being properly cared for, so he stole them and sold them off to collectors who may or may not know anything about properly caring for WW1 memorabilia.

Having punished us by taking away our toys and selling them, he decided he needed to cleanse his karma by overhauling an Austin Healey.

Yeah,....... that makes sense to me. I agree with Dan-San, he got off too easy.

Phil

Thats pretty much the story. The reasons that he got six months was
1. when caught he co-operated.
2. No violence or drugs in the commission of the act.
3. The US Marsal's Service confiscated the Austin-Healy and his personal properties to be sold at auction for monetary reimbursement to the Govt.
4. He lost a department head's paycheck permanently for pennies.
5. He can never work for the Feds again. Thats even in a contract position.
6. The whole time he did in a Fed camp for non violent offenders working food service.

Yes, he got off too light but not totally without reprocussions. This will have an effect on him for the rest of his life. Even after he got out there was little that he could do without someone hiring him because they were related through family ties. Of course there is always flipping burgers.

[wacoavn]

Sorry about the confusion no the date. I looked in the upper left hand corner of the page and saw a current date - but as I looked at it again, there is a smaller date at the top of the article that is, in fact, from 1996.

I guess this is old news.

Some of you may be aware if the same type of theft problems they had at the Air Force Museum a few years ago. I guess this story pre-dates issues at Dayton. I wish the people running the Air Force Museum would have tightened things up in light of this incident. On the contrary, it seems some low-down individuals used it as a working model for stealing artifacts.