Man sentenced for stealing woolly mammoth tusk

The video surveillance system at the Campbell Creek Science Center in Anchorage caught Thornley Elze and Gary Lynn Boyd stealing a fossilized woolly mammoth tusk in March 2018.

An Anchorage man who stole a fossilized woolly mammoth tusk from a federal museum has been sentenced to 33 months in prison, and ordered to pay $8,385 in restitution to the Campbell Creek Science Center, where the museum is housed.

U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason handed down the sentence on April 11 for Martin Thornley Elze, 52, who conspired with Gary Lynn Boyd to steal the tusk on the night of March 8, 2018, then cut the irreplaceable paleontological resource into pieces and sold them for profit.

Elze also faces three years of supervised release after serving the sentence.

According to court documents Elze and Boyd targeted the tusk in advance by visiting the science center and asked staff questions about the weight and authenticity of the tusk. They returned the next night after the center was closed and Boyd used a rock to break a window, causing $1,385.22 in damage, to unlawfully open a door.

The museum’s video surveillance system caught the two men carrying off the tusk.

They then cut the tusk into pieces to sell for profit. According to court documents the tusk in its original condition was worth $7,000 to $8,000.

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Court documents also noted that in June 2018, and while in custody for an unrelated state prosecution that Elze tried to influence a witness to make materially false statements to the federal grand jury, in hope that it would shield him from prosecution.

Boyd is scheduled for sentencing on May 15 at the federal courthouse in Anchorage. He pleaded guilty in January to one count of removal of a paleontological resource.

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