A former archivist has admitted to stealing hundreds of sound recordings from the National Archives and Records Administration -- including a 1937 Babe Ruth radio interview -- and selling them on eBay.
Leslie Charles Waffen, 66, pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in Greenbelt to embezzlement of government property.
Prosecutors said they found 955 sound recordings belonging to the Archives when agents raided Waffen's Rockville home in October 2010. The recordings were worth at least $30,000, according to his plea agreement.
Waffen was the chief of the Motion Picture, Sounds and Video Recording branch from 2005 until June 2010. He had worked at the Archives since 1969.
The recordings found in his home were donated to the Archives in 1975 and 1976, according to the plea agreement. Between August 2001 and October 2010, he took some of those, including the Ruth interview, and sold them on eBay, the plea agreement says.
U.S. Attorney for Maryland Rod Rosenstein said the case was "especially egregious" because Waffen "was a high-ranking government employee who violated his obligation to protect historical records."
The Ruth recording -- an interview from a quail hunting trip -- began the investigation into the thefts, Archives Inspector General Paul Brachfeld told The Washington Examiner. In September 2010, Waffen sold the recording on eBay for $34.74. The trade came to authorities' attention and officials recovered the recording from the buyer.
"We could prove conclusively that it had been in our holdings," Brachfeld said.
Agents found more than 6,000 recordings at Waffen's home. Nearly 1,000 have been traced back to the Archives' collections, and Brachfeld said investigators were still determining whether the others belonged to the Archives, Waffen or someone else.
He would not provide information about any recordings other than the Ruth interview. Court documents do not provide any additional details.
Michael Fayad, Waffen's attorney, declined to comment.
The Archives division Waffen led maintained the Zapruder film of President Kennedy's assassination, and he was quoted in a 2004 New York Times article about the unit's efforts to preserve an audio recording of the killing.
He was charged in the theft case last week and could face up to 10 years behind bars when he is sentenced on March 5.
The Archives has heightened security at its facilities and is beginning to check the bags of visitors and staff before they exit, according to an Archives statement.
"We want people to understand that if you steal from us, we're going to detect it and we're going to prosecute you and we're hopefully going to put you in a jail cell," Brachfeld said.
