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New Zealand Police Break Up Library Book Theft RingPolice in Christchurch, New Zealand, arrested seven people September 29 in connection with the systematic theft of rare books from academic, public, and special libraries around the country. Detective Senior Sergeant John Rae told the national TV One News that the arrests were a result of a five-month investigation of a theft ring that targeted valuable books about New Zealand and the Antarctic.“Many of the books recovered so far have signs that their identifiable markings have been obliterated, altered, or removed,” Rae said. “Some of the books have been rebound.” Police and library staff have combed through 46 shelving units in a warehouse and identified some 369 stolen items from Auckland, Waikato, Massey, Victoria, Canterbury, and Otago University libraries, the Christchurch Press reported October 2. Among the books recovered are a 1785 edition of Captain James Cook’s A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, The Oldman Collection of Polynesian Artifacts by William O. Oldman (1943), and Fanny Bullock Workman’s Two Summers in the Ice-Wilds of Eastern Karakoram (1917). University of Canterbury Library Director Gail Pattie told the Press that helping police identify stolen books was at times a heartbreaking task. “Libraries collect these things to share them and to use them,” she said. “We don’t mind loaning them to people, but we do expect them to come back.” Posted October 1, 2004. |
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