By: Dominic Jones
Long time Star Wars fans will be familiar with Steve Sansweet, the former head of fan relations at Lucasfilm. While Sansweet retired from Lucasfilm in 2011, he remains active in the Star Wars fan community as the owner of the world's largest Star Wars collection, known as Rancho Obi-Wan. Unfortunately, Rancho Obi-Wan was the victim of a major theft over the past few years. Sansweet released a statement today, informing fans of the situation.
Sansweet revealed that,
In February we at Rancho Obi-Wan found out that we had been the victim
of a major theft that surreptitiously took place over many months in
late 2015 through 2016.
There were more than 100 valuable items stolen, the majority of them
vintage U.S. and foreign carded action figures, many of them rare and
important pieces. Most have either been resold or professionally
appraised for a total of more than $200,000.
The theft came to light after Philip Wise, a good friend, major
collector and owner of several Star Wars websites, posted news of the
theft of his rare prototype rocket-firing Boba Fett action figure from
his Texas warehouse. Zach Tann, a respected toy dealer and collector in
Southern California, immediately notified Philip that he had purchased
that figure from Carl Edward Cunningham, 45, a well-known Star Wars
collector and R2-D2 builder from Marietta, Georgia.
The alleged culprit has been arrested and charged with felony grand theft, and been released on bail. Sansweet is asking for fans help in locating the stolen items. He concluded his statement with the following request,
"If you have any information about Carl Cunningham’s activities or items
that he has sold please write to tips@ranchoobiwan.org. If you think you
may have purchased a stolen item, please be patient while we work
through this process. It is our goal to resolve this situation as
quickly as possible and to continue to use the collection at Rancho
Obi-Wan to “Inspire through the Force” despite the destruction caused by
one person."
This is a terribly unfortunate situation. Sansweet has been a wonderful ambassador to the Star Wars community for the past few decades and we hope that the situation is resolve quickly and justly.
Follow The Star Wars Underworld on Twitter @TheSWU for more updates about this story and other breaking Star Wars news.
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