The Collegian

Issue date: 2/28/08 Section: Focus

Volume One Bookstore greets its visitors by a sign. It asks you not to let the cat out. Inside, there are more books than there are shelves. Books pile on each other, as if there is a competition to see which tower can be largest. The scent of rich coffee smells empowering.

Rather than immediately greeting and keeping an eye on every customer, the staff of Volume One Bookstore allows visitors to wander a bit before tending to them.

The trusting atmosphere of Volume One, however, got the best of the staff last September, when they realized burglars were stealing from them. Those burglars were found five months later.

The thieves weren't after money; rather it was postcards, among other things. Around 12,600 postcards, estimated at about $100,000 in value, were stolen from Volume One and were being sold online and at the Allen (Mich.) Antique Barn.

"We didn't have any leads, and we didn't really know what happened," said Aimee England, manager of Volume One Bookstore.

England and her friends go shopping for antiques every weekend. They spend most of winter, though, in antique malls to escape the cold.

England said she was shopping at the Allen Antique Barn in early February this year with her friends when she stumbled on the stolen items for sale.

"I said to my other friend, 'This is our stuff!' and I called 9-1-1 right away," England said. "I got all upset, nervous and shaky. I was freaking out because it was just so overwhelming"

England said she recognized a binder full of political pins and her own handwriting.
The thieves took advantage of Volume One Bookstore through The Hillsdale Annex.

They stole drawers full of photographs, valentines and postcards, shelves of old magazines and frames of political badges. If it fit in a box, it was stolen.

"Some of them were in the pipeline getting ready to be priced and some of them were downstairs in that box," Richard Wunsch, owner of Volume One Bookstore, said pointing.

The postcards, bought and collected, slowly built up in the boxes and drawers of Volume One before they were stolen.

"This was Ohio through West Virginia," England said, pointing to an empty dresser drawer that had been used to catalog postcards by state.

The Ohio and West Virginia postcards might not find their home for a while, though, as the case is still under investigation.

Some cards and photos dodged the thieves, though - the postcards on display are the few that the thieves missed.

"I love the pictures and pieces of life that you can see," England said about them.

The remaining postcards range in date from 1900 to WWII era and depict life in local Michigan. Piled in with others are photos of downtown Hillsdale, Hanover and the Irish Hills, circa 1908. At first glance they seem to be worth little, but collectively they are worth thousands of dollars.

"I don't know, they just charm me," England said. "There's something about them. You can't really explain it, but there's something about them that makes them all unique."

Hillsdale College Collegian 2008

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