Posted on 01/22/2020 2:48:15 PM PST by yesthatjallen
A Virginia National Guard sergeant was sentenced Wednesday to 18 months of supervised probation for stealing World War II-era dog tags from the National Archives and Records Administration in Maryland.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas DiGirolamo also ordered Robert Rumsby, 30, of Fredericksburg, Virginia, to pay a $5,000 fine. Rumsby had faced a maximum sentence of 1 year of incarceration after pleading guilty in November to one misdemeanor count of theft.
Rumsby told investigators he took dog tags that belonged to four U.S. airmen killed in plane crashes in 1944, according to a criminal complaint. Rumsby’s wife is the great niece of one of the deceased airmen. Rumsby said he gave that airman’s dog tags to his wife’s grandmother as a Christmas gift and gave another airman’s dog tags to a relative of that serviceman, the complaint says.
The magistrate said Rumsby’s sentence is designed to promote respect for the law and serve as a deterrent to protect “national treasures” stored at the National Archives.
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Rumsby isn’t the first visitor to be accused of stealing from the National Archives facility in College Park. Antonin DeHays, a French historian and author, was sentenced in April 2018 to one year in prison after pleading guilty to stealing at least 291 dog tags and other relics, most of which he sold on eBay and elsewhere for a total of more than $43,000.
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(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
What an A-hole...
Relatives should be allowed to have them rather than locked away in some archive where nobody will ever care or see them.
I agree with that, if that was what he was doing. We made our own tags in basic in 1971 I still have one of them. We made two. Most folks need to reaserch what they were for, how they were used and why one was brought back to the command post. They had a purpose. We wore them on a chain.
If you had read the article, you would have known that was what he was doing.
Sandy Bergler wannabe?
Trust but verify.
Sandy “Burglar” Berger stole a pile of Klintoon docs from the NA, and got away with it.
Rumsby told investigators he took dog tags that belonged to four U.S. airmen killed in plane crashes in 1944, according to a criminal complaint. Rumsby’s wife is the great niece of one of the deceased airmen. Rumsby said he gave that airman’s dog tags to his wife’s grandmother as a Christmas gift and gave another airman’s dog tags to a relative of that serviceman, the complaint says.
Speaking as a citizen, I'd gladly let those treasured artifacts from the archives go back to the families of the loved ones who lost the men who had worn them in battle.
What do they call the tags worn by U.S. Army’s K-9s?
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