Owner of world’s largest Star Wars collection robbed, police charge ‘trusted’ friend
About 120 to 130 items worth some $200,000 missing from Rancho Obi-Wan, Steve Sansweet says
The owner of the largest collection of Star Wars memorabilia said on Monday a long-time friend had robbed him of more than 100 items, including rare vintage US and foreign carded action figures.
Steve Sansweet, who runs Rancho Obi-Wan, a non-profit museum north of San Francisco that houses more than 400,000 Star Wars collectibles, said the theft took place over several months in late 2015 through 2016.
“We’re missing about 120 to 130 items worth some $200,000,” he said. He said the majority of the items stolen are vintage US and foreign carded action figures, many of them rare.
Sansweet, a former Wall Street Journal reporter who worked for 15 years as head of fan relations at Lucasfilm before retiring in 2011, identified the suspect as Carl Cunningham, a well-known Star Wars collector and R2-D2 builder from Marietta, Georgia.
“I’ve known him for 20 years,” Sansweet said.
“He shared our hospitality, he stayed with us, he ate our food, he had the run of the museum as few people had because we trusted him, and he turns around and does something like this.”
A spokesman for the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that Cunningham on March 13 had been charged with felony grand theft and was free on bail.
