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Goldin wasn't sure what was happening. He wrote to the National Archives. Were they getting rid of old material? If so, he wanted his records back. He got a call a few days later. No, the archive hadn't sold anything. The record was missing, and it seemed likely it had been stolen. Goldin, a meticulous record keeper, turned over the information he had, including documentation of his donation. He knew the eBay seller with the Ruth record was going by the name "hi-fi-gal" and lived in Rockville, Md. Then Goldin did some detective work of his own. He ordered a different recording from "hi-fi-gal," and when it arrived he traced the package's return address. It came back as the home of Leslie Waffen, the man who had accepted Goldin's donation to the Archives more than 30 years earlier. "I was kind of puzzled at the beginning and then disappointed when I discovered it was Les Waffen," said Goldin, who added the men hadn't stayed in touch. With that information and more, federal officials obtained a search warrant and raided Waffen's home, carting away two truckloads of materials. Late last year, Waffen pleaded guilty to stealing government property. He and his lawyer have declined to talk to reporters. Soon after his guilty plea, however, Waffen wrote an apology letter to friends and colleagues, saying he was "deeply ashamed and embarrassed" by his actions. But he denied that the records he took and sold, worth at least $30,000, were "unique or of significant historical value." In the 1980s, the archive had made copies of at least some of the recordings on reel to reel tapes, just as Goldin himself had. Waffen said most of what he sold was considered duplicative or excess. Still, he acknowledged he'd been wrong to take them. "I lost archival perspective and made wrong choices," Waffen wrote. ___ Online: J. David Goldin: http://radiogoldindex.com/
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