There is an expert for just about everything here in the United States. One expert on famous baseball player Babe Ruth helped deter a theft from our National Archives.

When J. David Goldin saw the recorded interview of baseball great Babe Ruth for sale on eBay he knew something was wrong. An expert on the “Sultan of Swat” he knew there was only one original record of that 1937 interview of Ruth on a hunting trip.

How did the 69-year-old Goldin know something was amiss? He had donated it to a government archive more than 30 years ago. Now someone was auctioning it off, the winning bid just $34.75. This from seattlepi.com.

Goldin Saves the Day

From his home in Connecticut, filled with antique radios and tape reels, Goldin launched an amateur sleuthing effort that helped uncover a thief ripping off the country's most important repository of historical records.

As is often the case, the heist turned out to be an inside job. The culprit was the recently retired head of the video and sound branch of the National Archives and Records Administration — the government agency entrusted with preserving such documents as the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

And he would sell such a treasure for $35? That is absolutely criminal. And a judge agreed.

Serial Thief

The judge sentenced Leslie Charles Waffen, to a year and a half in prison and fined him $10,000. Waffen, who had worked at the National Archives for 40 years, acknowledged stealing thousands of sound recordings from the archive. Prosecutors said more than 1,000 were sold on eBay in thefts that started as early as 2001. The stolen recordings ranged from a recording of the 1948 World Series to an eyewitness report of the Hindenburg crash.

A sickening story about a serial thief entrusted with safeguarding our national treasures. I hope Waffen gets a stop theft class and counseling while spending his time rehabilitating in jail!