eBay Auctions
Joseph Romito, a Virginia attorney and avid history buff, tipped off authorities after he saw one of the items, a four-page letter from Vice President John Calhoun written in 1823, listed on eBay.
"I wanted to identify the recipient of the letter," said Romito, who researched the document and discovered it belonged to the state library.
"These kinds of items ... represent the heritage of all Americans," Romito said. "I am gratified that I had some small part to play in it."
The attorney general's office placed the winning bid of about $1,800 on Calhoun's letter.
"We're working on recovering those documents sold on eBay," Cuomo said, noting that investigators planned to review Lorello's sales records. "We're asking the traders to please check their collections."
Lorello, who began working at the state archives in 1979, was placed on administrative leave from his $71,732-a-year job. He made no comment as he left court and messages left on his answering machine were not immediately returned.
It's unclear how much Lorello made from his sales. In some cases he went to trade shows and exchanged stolen items for others, authorities said. But officials said in just two sales of Davy Crockett Almanacs—popular 19th-century pamphlets about the frontier hero's exploits—he received more than $5,000.
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