Not Your Ordinary Library Theft

This guy made a career out of it.

Link to June 24 Great Falls Tribune article, "Great Falls man pleads guilty to stealing rare library books".

Excerpt:

More than 100 libraries are represented in the recovered books. Hundreds of maps, lithographs, and serial plates were found in envelopes ready for sale on eBay. Possibly tens of thousands of maps, lithographs and plates were found in plastic containers, according to court documents.

During the search, investigators also found the tools used by Brubaker to steal the documents and books from the library, and to "clean" them for resale. Investigators found magnets used to de-magnetize books so that they could go through security without setting off an alarm, chemicals and brushes used to remove stamps, codes, and other identifiers from the stolen books, mailers used to fortify and protect the documents and which could be quickly sealed to prevent casual observation or law enforcement observation without a warrant, and cutting tools.

Of the 832 books believed to have been stolen by Brubaker, 338 books have been confirmed to have been stolen from libraries. Of the apparent 109 victim libraries and universities (and other sources of books), 51 have been confirmed as having been the victim of the thefts. Victim libraries were found in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

Is your theft detection system nothing more than public art?