[PRCo] Re: IRM Horn Thefts- Off Topic, But Please Help If You Can

[Kenneth Josephson]

"Fred W. Schneider III" wrote:

> Not really off topic.  I don't think attempting to recover stolen
> property is ever off topic.  I remember when the Pennsylvania State
> Police caught a man trying to cut builders plates off of PRR engines
> intended for the Strasburg Museum collection ... sad thing was this man
> was a very well known, supposedly above reproach, and an author of
> several major books.  It's kind of like working in government; you never
> seem to know who the enemies are.  I've had to reprint several photos
> for display at Arden because the originals were stolen right off the
> displays.

There is a jerk here in Las Vegas who has removed full page photos and
reprinted timetables from a collection of traction books donated to the public
library by the original owner's well intentioned widow; the Red Devil "racing"
the Jenny biplane, the builder's photo of the Seattle-Tacoma interurban, etc.

I believe the smartest thing to do is to leave these books to a museum and let
them have a fund raising auction such as PTM held some years ago.

I remember theft of traction publications was such a problem in Milwaukee  by
1972, the public library system transferred nearly all of their traction books
to the reference section. The ones that were left in circulation eventually
disappeared or had pages removed.

Some jerk also went through the main library's newspaper archives and stole the
March 2, 1958 "For Whom the Bell Tolls" cartoon of Milwaukee's last streetcar.

Anyone who steals from a museum or a railroad steals from ***all*** of us!

Ken J.