State Ed Worker Accused of Stealing State Artifacts

Daniel D. Lorello, 54, of Van Leuven Drive in Rensslaer is under arrest, accused of stealing hundreds of state artifacts from the New York State Cultural Education Center and selling them on e-bay.

A spokesman from Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office says Daniel Lorello is a long time employee with the New York State Education Department.

There is no word yet on how much Lorello made from selling the artifacts or where they are today. The attorney general's office says a good samaritan noticed the artifacts for sale and contacted the state.

“These irreplaceable documents are the property of all New Yorkers,” said Cuomo. “Public employees with access to records of New York State’s vibrant history are trusted curators who must not abuse their power for personal gain.

Lorello is scheduled to be arraigned in Albany City Court Monday morning and a press conference by the attorney general's office is scheduled at 10:30 in New York City.

He is charged with third-degree grand larceny, fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property and first-degree scheme to defraud, all felonies.

E-bay and the Attorney General's Office are working together to attempt to retrieve all of the stolen artifacts.

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After a longtime New York State Education employee was arrested and accused of pilfering historic documents from state archives CBS 6 wanted to know how this could have happened?

Reporter Ken Screven asked State Education officials, “What is being done now to prevent this kind of theft from happening again?”

Spokesperson Jonathan Burman says until now researchers seeking access to the archive documents only had to present an i.d.

But officials say now access to the archives has been greatly reduced, even for state library employees.

And we’re told a National Security expert from Cornell University is currently examining the State Library’s security practices. Based on their findings they will make recommendations on how to keep the 200 million historic items safe.