CHEBOYGAN, Michigan (4 Aug 2004) -- A judge ordered a 53-year-old man to return artifacts he stole from shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, authorities said Tuesday. Robert Allen Lemmer of Cheboygan pleaded guilty in 89th District Court to stealing the beam from the Straits Underwater Preserve shipwreck of the William H. Barnum, in the Straits of Mackinac, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources said. Judge Harold Johnson ordered Lemmer to pay $4,650 in court costs, fines and restitution. An investigation by conservation officers revealed that Lemmer and a friend in 2001 used scuba gear and an air bag system to bring the Barnum's beam to the surface. They then towed it to Lemmer's Cheboygan County lakefront home, where it was intended for use as a fireplace mantel, the DNR said. A search at Lemmer's home also uncovered artifacts from the Straits Area Underwater Preserve shipwreck of the Sandusky. These artifacts were taken in the 1980s, and the statute of limitations prevented charges for those thefts. Michigan law prohibits the recovery, alteration, or destruction of shipwrecks or items related to shipwrecks in Michigan's Great Lakes waters, including shipwrecks in the state's Underwater Preserves. SOURCE - Cheboygan Daily TribunePartners in crime: Grave robbers Leigh Bishop and Brad Sheard. Following the lead of dive industry-endorsed shipwreck looters Bishop and Sheard, scuba diving thieves around the world are destroying wrecks for bragging rights, coffee table displays and internet auction profits that amount to a fraction of the revenue shipwrecks can generate as fully protected underwater museums.FROM THE EDITORS OF CDNN Scuba looters around the world aggressively compete for bragging rights, product endorsements and profits from the sales of stolen artifacts that are now on a par with those from smuggling humans and drugs. | | "The vast majority of the global scuba diving community opposes shipwreck looting and underwater grave robbing," said CDS President Evan T. Allard. "For scuba divers, every shipwreck is an underwater museum to be fully protected for our children, our grandchildren and all future generations of divers who will dive deeper and longer thanks to ongoing improvements in diving technology ," Allard added. "It is absolutely imperative that the global scuba diving community, archaeologists, coast guards, police and tax authorities act now to prevent Leigh Bishop, Brad Sheard, David Morton (of the Boston Sea Rovers) and other shipwreck looters from exploiting and destroying sunken ships for their personal coffee table displays, internet self-promotion schemes, commercial 'museum' profits and tax-evasion scams." CYBER DIVER ALERT | If you have information pertaining to the theft and/or sale of wreck artifacts, or desecration of underwater grave sites by Leigh Bishop, Brad Sheard, organized crime gangs or anyone else, please contact CDNN immediately and your information will be passed along to appropriate authorities. REPORT SCUBA LOOTER |
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