Forbes Smiley - Thefts and Arrest

Thefts and Arrest

On 8 June 2005, the discovery of an X-Acto knife on the floor of the reading room in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University led to his arrest. Although three maps on his person matched those missing from books he had just examined in the Beinecke, he protested his innocence. It was not until his court appearance a year later (22 June 2006) that he confessed to having stolen a total of 97 maps from six institutions — Boston Public Library, Harvard University (Houghton Library), Newberry Library (in Chicago), New York Public Library (the Rare Book and Map Divisions) and Yale University (Beinecke Library and Sterling Memorial Library) in the United States, as well as the British Library in London. At the time of his arrest the British Library had already identified him as a suspect and was about to call in the police. Smiley originally said he had been stealing maps for approximately seven years but later reduced that figure to four years.