{"id":20471,"date":"2021-11-25T14:05:34","date_gmt":"2021-11-25T19:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=20471"},"modified":"2021-11-25T14:05:34","modified_gmt":"2021-11-25T19:05:34","slug":"antique-rifle-thief-gets-a-day-in-jail-decades-on-from-his-museum-heists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2021\/11\/25\/antique-rifle-thief-gets-a-day-in-jail-decades-on-from-his-museum-heists\/","title":{"rendered":"Antique rifle thief gets a day in jail decades on from his museum heists"},"content":{"rendered":"
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After a crime spree spanning decades, antique thief Thomas Gavin had just one explanation for his museum heists: he likes “collecting” old things.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr Gavin, 78, has now been sentenced to one day in jail after being caught trying to sell a rare rifle dating back to the US Revolutionary War.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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When questioned, he admitted to dozens of other robberies in the 1960s and 1970s and apologised for the trouble.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Prosecutors on Tuesday said “justice finally caught up”, four decades later.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In July, Mr Gavin – a resident of Pottsville, Pennsylvania – pleaded guilty to disposal of an object of cultural heritage stolen from a museum.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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As part of his plea, Mr Gavin admitted that he stole an antique rifle, crafted by a master gunsmith in 1775, from the Valley Forge State Park Museum in 1971.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Christian Oerter rifle is one of only two such rifles known to have survived with its original flint mechanism that bears the maker’s name, place and date of manufacture. It is worth more than $175,000 (\u00a3131,000).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The FBI found Mr Gavin after he attempted to sell the rifle and other stolen items to an antiques dealer in July 2018.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The dealer later told reporters he realised the rifle was stolen after seeing it mentioned in a 1980 book written by an antique rifle expert.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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