Editor's Roundup
USDA people in the news

Agents and auditors with the Office of Inspector General spend a lot of time guarding against fraud, waste, and abuse in such USDA programs as food stamps and farm loans. But recently, as Jim Knorr can attest to firsthand, OIG was instrumental in the recovery of stolen rare books.

Knorr, a senior special agent with OIG Investigations in its Mid-Atlantic Region, based in Beltsville, Md., worked as the case agent in the theft of several books on medicinal plants. The books had been stolen from the rare book collection at the National Agricultural Library in Beltsville.

And there was a reason those books were housed in that section, which affords the highest levels of security and environmental controls at NAL. It’s because the books had been printed in the mid-1500s.

“The three rare books were written in Latin,” Knorr explained. The oldest book, printed in 1561, was titled “Historia Plantarum,” the second book’s title was also in Latin, and the third book was printed in London in 1572.

“That’s the page where one of the thieves used a razor blade to cut out NAL’s pinhole property markings--and thereby desecrate that ancient book,” observes OIG’s Jim Knorr (center), as he and OIG’s Dorothy Wortham (left) confer with NAL’s Susan Fugate on the condition of four rare books on medicinal plants from the rare book collection at the National Agricultural Library. The problem is that for awhile those books weren’t at NAL--since they had been stolen. And they weren’t just ''are books,’ they were 'old, rare books’--each dating back to the 1500s. That’s why Fugate is wearing white gloves as she carefully handles them. Knorr was the case agent in OIG’s successful effort to recover the stolen books and track down 'the perps,’ a k a 'perpetrators.’ --Photo by Brian Haaser

Dan Lech, head of NAL’s Collection Management Section, had gotten the first indication about the book theft when he received a phone call from a book store owner in Baltimore. “I was advised that two men were trying to sell three rare books, on medicinal plants, that were printed in the 1500s–and which had markings showing that they were the property of NAL,” he recounted. He said that personnel at several book shops, where the men were trying to make a sale, “very wisely remained noncommital but took down phone numbers of the would-be sellers, in case their initial suspicions proved to be well-founded.”

So Lech initiated an inventory search, discovered that some books were missing, and then contacted OIG.

Knorr said that one of his first moves was to give his cell phone number to the book store owners who had been approached. “I wanted those owners to give my number to the men with the books,” he explained. “Then I’d pretend that I was a rare book dealer--and wanted to make a purchase.”

In the meantime, Knorr interviewed Susan Fugate, head of NAL Special Collections, and NAL librarian Lynn Stewart. They advised that electrical contractors from the private sector had recently done some work in that section of NAL.

“The NAL staffers advised me that the contractors had been escorted and monitored by NAL staff while they were inside that rare book secured area,” Knorr noted. “And my own observation was that the particular area is a locked, caged section that has very limited access to NAL personnel.”

If these four books could talk, they’d probably be exclaiming--in Latin--“Verily and forsooth, we’re humbly and eternally grateful to no longer be suffering the slings and arrows of thievery at the cruel hands of knaves.” Huh?! Well, roughly translated, it’s a reference to the fact that these four rare books on medicinal plants were recently stolen from the National Agricultural Library. OIG’s Jim Knorr was the case agent in that agency’s successful recovery of those rare books, which date back to the 1500s. Plus, OIG agents arrested the thieves, one of whom is currently residing in the--what’s the Latin word for “slammer”? -- Photo by Jim Knorr

Then came a surprising new development. Knorr said that the men with the rare books had maintained, to some book store owners, that they had found the books while cleaning out someone’s residence. But when the owners saw NAL’s pinhole property markings on the books, they told the men that they thought the books might be stolen.

“So one morning,” Knorr said, “about a month after the approximate date of the theft, a book store owner found two of the rare books in her book drop when she opened her shop.”

“We speculated that the men got scared about having two of the books, so decided to get rid of them right away.”

Fugate said the market value of the two recovered books was about $2,500 to $3,500, and $5,000 to $11,000, respectively.

But Knorr was still closing in on his prey. He had obtained photos of the electrical contractors who had done some work at NAL, showed the photos to the book store owners, and made some tentative matches.

Then he and OIG special agent Dorothy Wortham met with one of the suspects and interviewed him. “He gave us just enough additional details so that we could fill in some remaining gaps,” Wortham affirmed. “So by now we had recovered the rest of the stolen property--which included a fourth book as well. Plus, we had already arrested an earlier suspect--and now we knew we had our second thief, sitting there in front of us.”

Knorr soon obtained a warrant for the arrest of the second suspect, went to the suspect’s residence in Baltimore, and knocked on the door. As he waited for a response, an accompanying police officer yelled, “There he goes, out the back door!”

OIG special agent-in-charge Brian Haaser, who participated in the arrest, started chasing after the suspect. “Then I yelled 'STOP!’, using my best 'Alpha voice’,” he quipped, “and the suspect stopped.”

Both men were charged in federal court with criminal theft of government property. One has pled guilty and is awaiting sentencing, and the other is awaiting trial.

The moral of this story?

“There will never be any overdue library books in my household--ever!” Knorr laughed.