History

Over a nearly six-year period, a Mariners’ Museum archivist named Lester Weber systematically stole thousands of historical documents from the institution, including material related to the sinking of the Titanic, and then sold them on eBay. He and his wife made about $163,000 before being caught ....

by Travis McDade

11/25/09 2:08 PM

Do you like this?

Mariners feat

Courtesy of the Mariners' Museum

On Friday, September 22, 2006, John Hightower, the then-president of the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, received a troubling e-mail from a collector in Loemmenschwil, Switzerland. The man explained that for the past two years, he had been purchasing, via eBay, a great deal of high-quality historical nautical material from a woman in Newport News who identified herself as Lori Childs. Over time, the Swiss gentleman wrote, he had become curious as to how one person could acquire such a broad and valuable collection. It is not unusual for an amateur dealer to have a few noteworthy items confined to a single subject area, bought perhaps at an estate sale or inherited from a relative. But to have a seemingly constant supply of archival material—covering a range of eras and subject matter—was rare indeed. The Swiss collector said he’d tried on a number of occasions to find out who Childs was, without success.

Then, the Swiss man revealed, he’d caught a break. On her last mailing to him, Childs added one little—and ultimately crucial—piece of information to her return address. She listed the same P.O. box number she’d been using for months, but when writing her name, she inserted her middle initial for the first time—“E.” That might seem like a trivial detail, but in the hyper-specific world of Internet sleuthing, the ‘E’ would prove extraordinarily significant. When the Swiss collector used that letter in his next Internet search for Lori Childs, he discovered a three-and-a-half-year-old obituary for Childs’ mother, published in the Woodland, California Daily Democrat. The article revealed that the deceased woman was survived by “Lori E. Childs,” who lived with her husband, Lester Weber, and their two children in Newport News, Virginia. That ended the mystery: Lester Weber, as President John Hightower well knew, and the collector quickly learned, was the Mariners’ Museum Director of Archives.

In retrospect, say officials at the museum, there was always something odd about Lester Weber. A West Coast native like his wife, Weber had spent two years at the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs before being hired by the Mariners’ Museum, as an archivist in December 2000. Mariners’ Museum officials and investigators would later learn that Weber had not been popular with his Iowa colleagues—not surprising, because Weber was not well liked in Newport News. According to several Mariners’ Museum employees, he was standoffish, demanding and prickly. Apparently, Weber’s did one thing in Iowa even less well than making friends: making money. Just a month before he moved to Virginia, according to federal bankruptcy records, a judge in Des Moines granted his Chapter 7 filing for discharge of his personal debts. He was broke.

, , ,

Over a nearly six-year period, a Mariners’ Museum archivist named Lester Weber systematically stole thousands of historical documents from the institution, including material related to the sinking of the Titanic, and then sold them on eBay. He and his wife made about $163,000 before being caught ....

by Travis McDade

11/25/09 2:08 PM

Latest Comments

  • Mariners' Museum

    My family has had a collection of 20 halfhulls made by 3 generations of the Steers family on loan to the Mariners' Museum since 1936. To to say that this news of theft from the same museum was disturbing would be a huge understatement. Due to my family's maritime heratige and my own research i have had the pleasure to be able to call the "Swiss gentleman" a friend. It's nice to know that there are others out there willing to put their butts on the line when confronting frauds, fakes, and theives. These crooks are no different than the greedy pothunters who desrtoy ancient burial grounds for personal gain

    Posted by Henry Steers III November 15, 2010 10:40:50

  • Gentleman from Switzerland

    I am proud to know the gentleman from Switzerland. Not only is he highly intelligent, but he had guts to get involved in preserving the Mariners' Museum materials. Lori E. Childs referred to her involvement saying something like, "It was just walking-around money". It might be true that her jeans' pockets are deeper than most! The gentleman from Switzerland acted like a one-man Art Theft Squad and is to be congratulated for doing the right and courageous thing. His discoveries were noted not only in the museum biz but also in the yacht club curators' world where there are considerable opportunities to remove objects.

    Posted by Annie November 15, 2010 07:39:49

  • Appalling

    This is a terrible tragedy. I loved the Mariner's Museum when I was a kid and this is very disturbing.

    Posted by Lucy December 07, 2009 12:48:04

  • Enjoyed reading this.

    Thanks. Was a very good read.

    Posted by November 27, 2009 05:24:05

Add your thoughts

  

Events Calendar

Sunday

May 27, 2012

Sunday

May 27, 2012

Sunday

May 27, 2012

Sunday

May 27, 2012

Sunday

May 27, 2012

Sunday

May 27, 2012

Sunday

May 27, 2012

Search Events | Submit Yours

Note: All events are subject to approval by the editors and will not appear immediately.

Built with Metro Publisher™