Rancho Obi-Wan, the largest private museum of Star Wars memorabilia, said Monday that around 100 pieces from its collection had been stolen, iO9 reports.
It wasn't exactly one single Ocean's Eleven-style toy heist, though. The rare and collectable action figures had been systematically robbed from Rancho Obi-Wan over a series of months. Little by little, the thief allegedly snuck items out of the non-profit museum, which is located at collector Steve Sansweet's private property near Petaluma, California.
The full extent of the theft came to light after another collector traced a stolen Boba Fett collectable back to its original seller, Carl Edward Cunningham, and realized that Cunningham had also been peddling items likely stolen from Rancho Obi-Wan. Cunningham, 45, is now facing felony theft charges and is out on bail.
Sansweet wrote on the Rancho Obi-Wan site that stolen items were mostly "vintage US and foreign carded action figures, many of them rare and important pieces," and that the total value of stolen merchandise was more than $200,000. He told iO9 that the alleged robbery was a "devastating betrayal" because the pair had been decades-long friends—some real Lando/Han shit.
"I have known Carl for many years, considered him a good and trusted friend, and played host to him at my home numerous times," Sansweet wrote on his site. "I, and the staff at Rancho Obi-Wan, are devastated that he is the alleged perpetrator of the thefts."
Rancho Obi-Wan are asking collectors to reach out if they have purchased memorabilia from Cunningham or have come across rare Star Wars items recently, in hopes that the museum can recover the missing pieces from its collection.
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