Official charged with stealing ancient remains

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Why would someone do this?

IOWA CITY, Iowa —A retired National Parks Service superintendent has been charged with stealing ancient Native American remains from a federal museum collection.

Former Effigy Mounds National Monument superintendent Thomas A. Munson was charged Tuesday with embezzlement.

He's expected to be arraigned in federal court in Cedar Rapids next week.

The 76-year-old has been the subject of an investigation since 2011, when he returned a box filled with prehistoric bones to the monument in northeast Iowa.

[bluedigger]

1. They were probably collected under unauthorized circumstances.

Once he had them he didn't know what to do with them, and thought enough time had passed since any transgression to mellow any discipline. Probably a bad call there.