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Don’t hire 40-year-old interns
Everyone knows interns make almost no money (if they’re getting a meager stipend) or no money (if they’re sans stipend). For college kids, this usually works out ok. They’re used to living rather destitute lives, and can get by on mom and pop’s credit card, a side job slinging coffee, and lots of Raman. But a 40-year-old intern…well he’s probably got bills and grown-up things to deal with.
The National Archives had to learn all this the hard way after hiring Denning McTague as an intern. They thought they were getting a good deal for last summer, since the 40-year-old has a master’s in history and library science and he would be working for them for free. Turns out the intern was smuggling Civil War documents out of the archives, however, hidden in a yellow legal pad. In total, he snatched 164 documents, worth about $30,000.
He got caught because he was selling the documents on eBay. A company that publishes Civil War books spotted some documents it recognized, and called the authorities. McTague had already sold and shipped about 70 of the documents, however, the Archives have managed to recover all but three of them so far.
McTague has since pled guilty, and he’ll be sentenced in July, when he could get up to 10 years in the clink and a $250,000 fine, although he’ll probably get less.
