In September of last year, we had the story of close to 5,000 items being stolen from the Florida State University’s Robert M. Ervin Jr. Collection. Now, the thief has been caught and identified.
Only four keys existed to protect the collection, and that the head of security Todd Peak had access to one of them. Peak was arrested this past Friday for the theft that took place over two years. Peak is accused of then selling the items to private buyers and comic book stores in the area.
The items were stolen from FSU Special Collections & Archives between March 17th 2020 and February 10th, 2021. The collection contains comics, serials, and items related to superheroes, science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Items include comics from Marvel, DC, underground comix publishers, foreign language titles, pulp magazines, and Big Little Books. The collection was donated by the late prominent Tallahassee attorney, Robert M. Ervin Sr., and his late wife, Frances Anne, in 1981. It was named for his son, Robert M. Ervin Jr., who continues to practice law in Tallahassee.
Peak is being charged with grand theft of more than $100,000, fraud, dealing in stolen property, and sale of stolen property.
Peak was undone by the rarity of the items and raised suspicion from the buyers who noticed his items matched the missing collection. Peak advertised the items in comic Facebook groups saying he was looking to downsize his collection.
One of the folks that became suspicious of Peak was the owners of Wilde Comics and Gaming in Crawfordville who had bought items off of him. They obtained a list of the stolen comics and felt it was a too much of a coincidence the items he was selling matched the list. Peak had 14 of the comics graded and his web search history obtained by the police showed he had searched for the value of the stolen comics.
Peak had also offered to help inventory the remaining items after the theft, something not a part of his job.
Police have since recovered 2,843 comics from the collection.
(via Tallahassee Democrat)
