I wasn't sure how much of the story Mike Cain wanted to tell, so here is what he told Leon Thompson of The St. Albans Messenger, when he spoke with him this morning.
Museum director follows instructions
By LEON THOMPSON
Messenger Staff Writer
FAIRFAX — Through a surreal series of events, the Fairfax Historical Society has retrieved all the items that were stolen from its headquarters in late August.
Shortly after the burglary occurred between Aug. 19 and Aug. 22, Historical Society President Michael Cain received a phone call from a man that said he acquired the items - approximately a dozen pieces of locally produced pottery, dating back to the mid-1800s - and wanted to return them anonymously.
According to Cain, the man heard about the burglary, realized what he had, and "felt sick about it." All he wanted to do was return them - no strings attached.
"Obviously, they were out some money, but they felt really bad," Cain said this morning.
On Sunday, the man agreed to drop all the items at a specific location in Fairfax, near the village, where Cain could retrieve them.
Cain said he told hardly anyone about the call, or the possibility of seeing the stolen artifacts again. He wasn't nervous about the situation, and he didn't want to jeopardize the drop.
"I had to trust him," Cain said. "I didn't know if it was really going to go down. But if this was a game, I wasn't even on the field. This guy had control of everything."
When Cain arrived at the man's specified location Sunday, all 10 pieces were packed, in tact, in five separate boxes - the crocks, the jugs, even the butter churn. Everything.
Cain speculated that the man who had the items is not from Franklin County or Fairfax, because "someone would have known and talked about it."
The Fairfax Historical Society has already started beefing up security at its Main Street headquarters. Whoever stole the artifacts entered the building by prying open a back window.