Jake Oelerich, 21, was apprehended at the post office with four packages of Harper’s Weekly that police said he was sending to a person in St. Louis who had paid him $1,500, the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin reported May 20. He was charged with first-degree theft and held on bail of $10,000.
Librarian Henry Yaple told the newspaper the library contacted the police after receiving an anonymous tip that Oelerich, who had been fired from the library in December, was selling the magazines on Ebay. The library discovered that its entire collections of Harper’s Weekly, from 1857–1916, and Harper’s Bazaar, from 1857–1879, were missing; Yaple estimated their value at some $225,000.
Yaple believes that Oelerich gradually removed the unbound magazines by concealing them in his backpack. “It was cleverly done,” Yaple said, explaining that Oelerich placed other material on the shelves to cover the gaps.
Half a pickup load of periodicals taken from Oelerich’s apartment are awaiting inventory by library staff, but Yaple believes at least 90% percent of the magazines were recovered. “Many times when libraries are victimized this way, they don’t get the material back,” he noted.
Posted May 21, 2004.