DULUTH, MINNESOTA: Terry Martin, a 76-year-old man from Grand Rapids, has admitted to stealing a pair of Dorothy ruby slippers from the classic movie 'The Wizard of Oz' in 2005.
He changed his plea to guilty on Friday, October 13, in a federal court in Duluth, Minnesota, according to WCCO.
How did Terry Martin steal the iconic Dorothy Ruby slippers?
Martin confessed that he broke into the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids where the slippers were on loan from a collector using a small sledgehammer, as per the report.
He smashed the glass case and took the shoes, thinking they were made of real rubies.
He said in the court that he did not hear any alarm and drove away with the slippers in his car.
In 2005, he tried to sell them to a 'jewelry fence', a criminal who buys and resells stolen goods but was disappointed to learn that the jewels were actually glass.
He then gave the shoes to someone else but did not reveal who it was or what happened to them after that.
“His involvement was that two-day period in 2005,” said Martin’s attorney, Dane DeKrey, as per a report.
The charge and the plea deal: Will Terry Martin serve prison sentence?
Martin was charged with one count of major artwork theft which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine early this year.
Before that, no one was ever arrested in the theft case.
However, as part of his plea deal, both sides agreed to a sentence of time served, considering Martin’s poor health condition. He is unlikely to be jailed.
As of now, he is in hospice care for advanced COPD. He appeared in the court with an oxygen tank connected to the wheelchair.
The judge will decide whether to accept the plea agreement or impose a different sentence in the next few months, as per reports.
The value of the ruby slippers
The ruby slippers, which had four pairs, were worn by Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale in the 1939 film, when she was 16, are considered a national treasure and an American icon.
They were insured for $1 million, but may now be worth more than $3 million.
They were recovered and returned to their owner Michael Shaw in 2018 after an FBI sting operation. Shaw, at the time, said the slippers were still in pristine condition.
Researchers at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, DC, where another pair of the slippers is on display, helped the FBI authenticate them.
John Kelsch, curator of the Judy Garland Museum, told WCCO News he was glad and that they found some closure that Martin took responsibility for his crime, but he still wanted to know what happened after he let them go.
“Just to do it because he thought they were real rubies and to turn them over to a jewelry fence. I mean, the value is not rubies. The value is an American treasure, a national treasure. To steal them without knowing that seems ludicrous,” Kelsch said.
