by Jeremy Hunt
Daily Lobo
UNM Police issued warrants Monday for five people suspected of stealing library books from universities and colleges and selling them to bookstores at other campuses.
The five people are part of a theft ring of as many as 12 people, said Lt. Pat Davis, UNM Police spokesman.
The department confirmed the group sold about $3,000 worth of stolen books to the UNM and CNM bookstores, Davis said.
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"This is their only job, and they've been doing this for at least a year or so," he said. "We're just not sure how far-reaching this actually is and how many institutions may actually be involved."
The five people are not affiliated with UNM, Davis said. Arrest warrants were issued for Lonny Sherman, 32; Lydia Yazzie, 33; Joseph Garcia, 32; Brian Largo, 32; and Erik Bahe, 20.
UNM Police began its investigation in October when it was notified that the CNM bookstore had been sold books from the Health Sciences Library, Davis said.
"As a routine audit of books they had bought, they discovered some that had medical library tags on them," he said.
Based on witness reports, the group has used money from book sales to pay for parties, vehicles and vacations to Mexico, Davis said. He declined to elaborate or say how the department got that information.
So far, the department found that 30 books were stolen from the Health Sciences Library, 12 from CNM's library and a couple from the University of Texas-El Paso, he said.
The group may also be active at NMSU, the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and schools in California, he said.
The five people who were issued arrest warrants face felony and misdemeanor charges, depending on their level of involvement, Davis said. The charges include conspiracy, receiving stolen
property, criminal damage to property, money laundering, burglary and larceny, he said.
Davis said members of the group have worked in libraries and bookstores, so they know what books are valuable and where to find security features.
He said they would tear out pages and bindings with security features and then rebind the books.
"These are professional folks that had the equipment to do that," he said. "They literally destroyed the books and put them back together to make them look new again."
Davis said the group will be
difficult to track down because the people involved travel often.
"They're from all over. They met here in Albuquerque in some form or fashion," he said. "Most recently, they've resided in Albuquerque."
Davis said the department provided information to the other universities and colleges that may be involved.
"We're still in those early stages," he said. "UNM surely has the most info about this particular group."
He said the Bookstore has a system to help prevent buying stolen books, such as requiring a UNM ID for buyback.
However, the group asked UNM students, faculty and staff to sell the books for them, Davis said. He said the Bookstore identified suspicious transactions from previous book buybacks.
"If a former student who was a history major is suddenly bringing back graduate surgical books, that raises a red flag," he said.
Book buyback for this semester begins today.
Davis said anyone who is asked to sell a book by someone they don't know should call
UNM Police.
