Six People Who Stole from the National Archives

Mental Floss has the top offenders, including Denning McTague whose crime is noted below...

Unpaid internships, while generally unglamorous, sometimes lead to bigger and better things. McTague’s internship with the National Archives ended with a trip to prison. The 40-year-old McTague, who has master’s degrees in history and library science, pleaded guilty to stealing 164 Civil War-era documents in 2006. The documents, which included an official announcement of Abraham Lincoln’s death, were worth an estimated $30,000. As part of his internship, McTague was responsible for arranging and organizing documents in preparation for the National Archives’ celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. He used a legal pad and backpack to sneak documents out of the archives and put most of them up for sale on eBay. A Civil War book publisher and would-be bidder tipped off the authorities when he became suspicious of some of the items on the auction site. McTague, whose lawyer said he had stolen the documents after becoming mired in debt, was sentenced to 15 months in prison and fined $3,000.