While we're on thievery

Sabrina Tavernise has an article in The New York Times about document theft:

Barry H. Landau, author and well-known presidential memorabilia collector, displayed his connections like pearls on a necklace. Photographs of him with Catherine Zeta-Jones, Alec Baldwin, and Martha Stewart adorn his website, adding celebrity credentials to the title he has given himself: America’s presidential historian.
So it was all the more noteworthy when Mr. Landau, 63, based in New York City, was arrested last Saturday at the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore, charged with stealing historical documents, including ones signed by Abraham Lincoln.
Landau’s lawyer, Steve Silverman, said he expected Landau would plead not guilty. He criticized the decision to hold Landau without bail, and said he had filed a habeas corpus petition to have the ruling reconsidered. “It’s outrageous,” Silverman said. “He’s somewhat of a public figure. He’s been on television shows, and his picture is posted all over the media. There’s little to no risk of flight.”
As the FBI continued to investigate— Landau has not yet been arraigned— other historical societies were checking their records to see if he had ever visited. Laura Washington, a spokeswoman for the New York Historical Society, said that he had, and that staff members were going through the records to determine how often.
Lee Arnold, senior director of the library and collections at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, said that Landau had visited seventeen times between December and May, along with Jason Savedoff, 24, who had been working with Landau and who was arrested with him last weekend. They were a memorable pair, Arnold said. They brought the staff cookies, he said, and a copy of Landau’s book, The President’s Table: 200 Years of Dining and Diplomacy. Landau seemed professional, but Savedoff, whom Landau introduced as his nephew, did not, Arnold said. He said Savedoff had filled out call slips incorrectly, and worked through boxes of material in alphabetical order rather than by topic. “He was so clueless,” Arnold said. “He would sulk sometimes. He was not what you’d consider a helpful research assistant.” Arnold said that the two men exasperated the staff with the sheer volume of material they requested, which he estimated to be hundreds of boxes, and with their vagueness. “What are you looking for?” he said, explaining his questions to Landau. “Just tell us. You’re driving us nuts here.”
Arnold said that staff members became suspicious when a card sent to the address Landau had listed on his application was returned to the society. (Landau told staff members that the address had been off by one number, possibly the result of a typing mistake.) And when they tried to call Savedoff to tell him he had forgotten his computer cord, Arnold said, the number did not work. Arnold said that he then called a meeting to alert the staff to be more watchful of the pair, but that they never returned.
There were other inconsistencies through the years. Sonya McNair, a spokeswoman for the CBS program 60 Minutes, said the network sent Landau a cease-and-desist letter in 2005 after learning that he had falsely represented himself as a 60 Minutes producer.
In an interview with The Associated Press, published in 2009, Landau said he had worked in the White House as assistant chief of protocol during the Gerald R. Ford administration. But Stacy Davis, an archivist at the Ford Library, said there was no record of Landau ever having been on staff. His name appears once in a guest list for a White House dinner on 7 July 1976, as the guest of the actress Hermione Gingold.
Landau seems to have made lasting impressions. One collector recalled him arriving at a political memorabilia antiques show with a giant poodle. Others who met him said Landau would often mention the names of famous people he knew. Nelson Whitman, who owns a political memorabilia shop in Washington, said Landau often took a long time to pay.
Silverman said he expected bail would eventually be set for Landau. “The crime as charged is circumstantial at best,” he said. “No documents were recovered on his person or his vehicle, and no documents were removed from the archives. As it stands now this is a zero-loss alleged crime.”
Arnold, meanwhile, said he was concerned about Landau’s seventeen visits. “You have to trust the public that they won’t steal from you,” he said.