All Over Albany

The (stolen) paper trail

The TU has posted a copy of the hand-written statement (pdf) made by Daniel Lorello, the state worker who's been accused of stealing hundreds of historic documents from the state. He was charged yesterday with grand larceny, possession of stolen property and scheming to defraud. From Lorello's statement (that's a thumbnail to the right), we find out that:
+ He used the money from sales of the documents to fund home renovations, car repairs, Christmas gifts, tuition and his daughter's "credit card problem"
+ A Davy Crockett almanac can go for $3200 on eBay
+ But most of the items went for less than a grand
+ He sold a document that belonged to the State Library in the library's bus lot -- the buyer paid him cash on the spot

A few other bits gleaned from other sources:
+ About 90 percent of what was stolen has been recovered. [Newsday]
+ The Department of Ed, which runs the State Library, says it will be looking into how the documents were stolen and how it might prevent future thefts. [NY Sun]
+ The scheme started to unravel partly because a lawyer in Virginia, who just happened to be a John C. Calhoun enthusiast (yes, apparently they do exist), recognized a Calhoun document on eBay and remembered that it belonged to the NY State Library. The lawyer actually got into a bidding war with law enforcement for the document on eBay. [NYT]

Hmm... is that a movie we smell? OK, maybe not major motion picture, but a TV movie of the week, perhaps? Maybe Nick Nolte could play Lorello -- here's a pic. (You know, if Nolte needed to pay some bills or something.)