Stolen Items! Please be on the look out for them!
Current mood: 
angry
On April 26, 2007 our home in Old Orchard Beach Maine was broken into, several items were stolen. Among other things, the thieves stole an antique stamp collection that has been passed down in our family for nearly 100 years. There were 2 bound books, and several pages torn from a third book stolen, as well as a glass/cardboard case. The descriptions of the items that have been stolen are as follows:
One stamp album is a red cloth bound book dating from the 1920/1930 eras, containing stamps dating from 1890′s – 1950′s. Many of the stamps are from Japan and it’s neighboring South Pacific region as my grandmother was best friends with the wife of the ambassador of Japan, who was living in the South Pacific at that time and sent the stamps back to Maine to my grandmother, Helen Ricker Allen. In addition to these the album contains several hundred stamps from this era from nearly every country in the world that had stamps at that time. My grandmother was quite young at the time and knew nothing of stamp collecting, as a result the stamps are glued down, not hinged, onto the pages, with the duplicate colors of them pasted one on top of the other. This fact along with the date and size of this collection makes it stand out among old collections, so should the thieves attempt to sell it to you, you well have no difficultly in mistaking it.
The second album is not so unique and may be more difficult to trace, though we hope that the thieves attempt to sell them both at the same time. It is a plastic ring binder from the late 1960′s era, quite common, and contains the basic colorful world stamps that are so often found in world collections of this era. The torn out pages come from a second identical plastic ring binder album. These belonged to my mother as a child.
The glass/cardboard case is a butterfly case, whose butterflies long since rotted and were replaced (by me) with another item. The glass/cardboard case contains a one of a kind hand carved heirloom that has been passed down in our family since the 1930′s. The item is a hand carved wooden weaving comb (or hair comb) from a tribe in Papua New Guinea (believed to be Chimbu, but the exact tribe is unknown). Along with the comb is a negative of the solider (my dad’s uncle) who brought the comb back with him from PNG during the 1930′s. Also in the case is an index card on which I hand wrote the info about the comb and the solider.
These items are dearly beloved and greatly missed; both have been in my family and passed down for generations. We want them returned, and are contacting as many local dealers and appraisers as we can find and requesting that they be on the look out for anyone selling or requesting an appraisal on items fitting this description. If you see these items please know that they are stolen goods and call the police immediately! Make sure that you get the description of the bearer of these stolen items and if possible their names, so that you can give this information to the police. In addition to stealing these items the thieves did considerable damage to our home, using a crowbar to tear the lock off the door, and than trashing the house, including breaking and antique gold/glass anniversary clock that my grandmother had brought with her from Germany and smashing many 78′s. We are seeking to prosecute these vandals and thieves once we know their identity, but mostly we want the stamp album and the PNG comb returned safely back home where they belong.
I am trying to send this notice on to as many dealers as possible, but it is a daughting task, and ask if you could help by passing copies of this letter on to any of your associates, fellow dealers/appraisers, and collectors. Any help you can give us in tracking down these stolen items would be greatly helpful.
If you should find them, Please contact me:
Wendy C. Allen
