Antonin DeHays, 33, was sentenced to a day short of a year in prison, three years supervised release, and 100 hours of community service for the theft of government records from the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, Md. United States District Judge Theodore D. Chuang ordered DeHays, a College Park, Md. resident, to pay more than $43,000 in restitution.
According to the plea, DeHays stole and converted U.S. service members dog tags and other records for his own use between December 2012 and June 2017. DeHays stole 291 dog tags and at least 134 other records from the National Archives, many from service members involved in military accidents and combat from World War II.
One example of DeHays' malfeasance was when he stole a brass and a silver dog tag issued to a Tuskegee Airman who died in a fighter plan crash in Germany. DeHays then traded the brass dog tag to a museum in exchange for the opportunity to sit in Spitfire airplane.
DeHays stole additional records from the Archives, including identification cards, personal letters, photographs, a bible, and pieces of downed U.S. aircraft. He kept some of the stolen materials for himself, gave others out as gifts, and sold the majority on eBay and elsewhere.
