Book Thief on the Loose?
brianlux
Posts: 41,630
Here's an interesting story for ya all. Now as you may notice, in an effort to be both cautious and urbane, I have added a question mark to this threads title and hereby present a disclaimer to what I'm going to say:
I'm not accusing anyone and I don't personally have proof. OK- that should keep me out of the courtroom.
(But if you ask me in private, do I think he did it, you'd probably get a more direct statement!)
So here are the facts and only the facts:
In 2003, a man well know in the book business by the name of Ken Sanders, proprietor of the excellent store, Ken Sanders Rare Books located in downtown Salt Lake City, UT (a man I can personally say is one of the best in the business) orchestrated a sting operation which resulted in the apprehension of a book thief named John Charles Gilkey, also known as "The man who loved books too much". In fact, a fine book was written by Allison Hoover Bartlett about this very subject titled, The Man Who Loved Books Too Much. As a result of the sting operation headed up by Sanders, Gilkey served 18 months in California's San Quentin State Prison.
Last week a man entered my wife's and her business partners store (I run a separate smaller book business but help out there), The Bookery in Placerville, CA and informed one of our employees that he noticed we have some rare title's listed on-line and that he was interested in seeing one of them, a first edition hardback copy of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Two Towers. The customer decided to purchase the book and wrote a check for $200 for the amount of purchase. That man's name, which is printed on the check is "John Gilkey". The employee did everything right but was not familiar with the name Gilkey. The next day we heard that a "John Gilkey" had just checked out of a local bed and breakfast using a bogus credit card. We immediately became suspicious and, sure enough, the $200 check we received from "John Gilkey" bounced. Besides his name, the check even has the man's phone number on it. He has not returned our calls.
After informing the police of what had happened, we were informed that John Gilkey currently has several warrants out for his arrest. Of course, in a world full of violent crimes, book theft is small potatoes. Unless, that is, you happen to make a living selling books and consider $200 (we do) a major sale. When we contacted Sanders about this incident he warned us to be careful because "the man steals more than books".
If you are interested in learning more about "the man who loved books too much" here's an interesting article which includes a photograph.
Book lovers, beware!
http://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine_books_blog/2010/12/have-you-seen-this-man.phtml
I'm not accusing anyone and I don't personally have proof. OK- that should keep me out of the courtroom.
(But if you ask me in private, do I think he did it, you'd probably get a more direct statement!)
So here are the facts and only the facts:
In 2003, a man well know in the book business by the name of Ken Sanders, proprietor of the excellent store, Ken Sanders Rare Books located in downtown Salt Lake City, UT (a man I can personally say is one of the best in the business) orchestrated a sting operation which resulted in the apprehension of a book thief named John Charles Gilkey, also known as "The man who loved books too much". In fact, a fine book was written by Allison Hoover Bartlett about this very subject titled, The Man Who Loved Books Too Much. As a result of the sting operation headed up by Sanders, Gilkey served 18 months in California's San Quentin State Prison.
Last week a man entered my wife's and her business partners store (I run a separate smaller book business but help out there), The Bookery in Placerville, CA and informed one of our employees that he noticed we have some rare title's listed on-line and that he was interested in seeing one of them, a first edition hardback copy of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Two Towers. The customer decided to purchase the book and wrote a check for $200 for the amount of purchase. That man's name, which is printed on the check is "John Gilkey". The employee did everything right but was not familiar with the name Gilkey. The next day we heard that a "John Gilkey" had just checked out of a local bed and breakfast using a bogus credit card. We immediately became suspicious and, sure enough, the $200 check we received from "John Gilkey" bounced. Besides his name, the check even has the man's phone number on it. He has not returned our calls.
After informing the police of what had happened, we were informed that John Gilkey currently has several warrants out for his arrest. Of course, in a world full of violent crimes, book theft is small potatoes. Unless, that is, you happen to make a living selling books and consider $200 (we do) a major sale. When we contacted Sanders about this incident he warned us to be careful because "the man steals more than books".
If you are interested in learning more about "the man who loved books too much" here's an interesting article which includes a photograph.
Book lovers, beware!
http://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine_books_blog/2010/12/have-you-seen-this-man.phtml
“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man [or woman] who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
Variously credited to Mark Twain or Edward Abbey.
0
Comments
Sorry if that really was the guy who scammed you, too bad he can't be convicted for the past crimes.
- Christopher McCandless
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121489286
Kinda sad, but he has a warped mindset.
- Christopher McCandless
LIVEFOOTSTEPS.ORG/USER/?USR=435
I love books too, not really into the collecting factor much either, but I actually found a first edition book for a good price, so I bought it-more for the nostalgia factor.
Interesting to see what happens whenever he kicks the bucket, would they auction the whole thing off, or return the stolen items?
- Christopher McCandless
As for book collecting, I once thought that would be fun but the expense is huge and I'm just as happy to have a nice copy of a book rather than an expensive collectible. That's also how I gear my own business- I pretty much just stock good quality, affordable used books.
Good question about what will happen to Gilkey's collection when he is gone. It would be difficult to trace many of the books back to the business he stole them from. I think our chances of seeing that 1st ed. Two Towers again is slim to none.
They are targeting small businesses for the product because they realize the need. I've p ones into it, seems really reasonable. Lots of craft fair vendors use them now.
- Christopher McCandless