Surrender in theft of 1823 atlas

Surrender in theft of 1823 atlas

	Published : Thu, 31 May 2007 20:40 By : Agencies Print this Story

NEW CITY, N.Y. (AP) - A former curator at the Rockland County Historical Society was arrested Thursday and charged with stealing the society's $60,000 antique U.S. atlas.

Rebecca Chen, 50, of Highland Park, N.J., complied with a prearranged surrender at Clarkstown police headquarters and was arraigned in Town Court on a charge of second-degree larceny, said Detective Robert Schine.

Police reported last week that the book had been recovered and a suspect identified, but her name was not made public until Thursday.

Schine said that on April 22, Chen took the 1823 book, 'A New American Atlas,' from a storage area at the Historical Society in New City, where she had worked for several years until last fall.

'She basically just walked out with it,' the detective said.

The atlas, published by Henry Tanner, is one of the earliest American atlases with large maps of the separate states.

Once the theft was noticed, dealers in antiquarian books were notified. Christopher Lane of the Philadelphia Print Shop called police when he received an e-mail from Chen about the atlas.

'He was a great help,' Schine said.

Police asked Lane to arrange a viewing of the book, and when Chen came to the shop with it, the Clarkstown detective was there to confront her.

'She seemed a little surprised,' Schine said Thursday. Asked whether she expressed any regret for the theft, he said, 'Whenever you get caught, you regret it.'

He said he did not know of any particular motive for the theft.

Chen was currently employed at the William Trent House Museum in Trenton, N.J., the detective said. She was allowed to surrender because she did not seem to be a flight risk and arresting her in Philadelphia would have meant extradition proceedings, he added.

'She cooperated with us and we decided we would let her turn herself in,' he said.

Chen did not have a lawyer in court Thursday and no plea was entered, Schine said. She was ordered held on $5,000 bail for another court appearance Monday, by which time a public defender was to be assigned to the case.