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  • I'm Craig Childs, I'm a writer and traveler

  • from Western Colorado.

  • Craig likes to go hiking and exploring in the rough and rugged canyons

  • of the Southwest,

  • the ancient territory of the Anasazi.

  • But picture him just a few years ago,

  • standing in a reading room.

  • (Nowhere near the canyons)

  • Right, in front of a display of ancient pottery.

  • Inside the cabinet is a collection

  • of jars and bowls, that are probably 700-800 years old, and I,

  • and I recognize the design, and I know where they came from.

  • I know that they came from a part of Arizona

  • where I had just spent a month, backpacking.

  • And I found the place, just entirely looted.

  • and, and...

  • ..I mean, folks had come in and removed everything they could find.

  • ...I mean, folks had come in and removed everything they could find. CHRIS: Yeah, yeah.

  • Some archaeologists, but mostly pot hunters,

  • people illegally coming in and taking shovels, and digging out burial artifacts.

  • And these artifacts in this little cabinet were,

  • were all stolen.

  • They, they weren't cataloged,

  • and in fact they were very roughly handled.

  • Some had been broken and repaired with masking tape, but..

  • PERSON: With masking tape? CHRIS: And with glue.

  • PERSON: And Elmer's Glue! CHRIS: Yeah.

  • PERSON: And what did the sign say on the thing?

  • CHRIS: I think it just said these come from

  • CHRIS: Arizona, that was.. PERSON: So was that, uh..

  • CHRIS: [INAUDIBLE] percent of it. PERSON: ..just it?

  • CHRIS: Yeah.

  • PERSON: So, what did you think and then

  • what did you do?

  • CHRIS: Well, I had been very frustrated at

  • seeing this landscape that had been

  • completely looted and I thought, "you know what?

  • I need to take something back",

  • and so I, I broke into the display case.

  • when we do this at night or how did you how did you get by the security I just

  • did it when I kept an eye on the room and saw when nobody was in there and

  • were you dressed in black and hanging from the ceiling?

  • I was looking like I look now how do you did you get that glass cutter I cut

  • around the molding of the of the glass and removed the glass plate and reached

  • in and took one of the jars that have been actually split in half with a

  • shovel I am not a good thief I nearly pissed my pants in the middle of it and

  • then I rearranged all the jars and and blew on the dust so it would resettle

  • and look like nothing had ever changed and then and then I went down to the

  • Apache reservation the White Mountain Apache reservation in central Arizona

  • and walked for two weeks with this this on my back down through all these

  • canyons looking for the the right place to put it back. In one sense I was I was

  • pushing against the tide of all these artifacts that are coming out of the

  • millions and millions of objects that are disappearing from the land I was I

  • was putting one back in and just pushing against that but the same time I

  • immediately started questioning what I was doing because I thought oh you're

  • just doing what everybody else has done you're stealing it because you think you

  • know the right thing to do with it. where did you finally put it I climbed up this

  • is this cliff face where there was a little tiny cave alcove about the size

  • of a bread loaf just a little hole in a cliff and I and I slid the vessel into

  • it and set it back there where I I don't think people will find it for centuries

  • the moment at which you place it have been that little alcove you're there

  • your hand leaves the thing what are you thinking at that point I'm I'm thinking

  • if anybody else finds us they will see the masking tape and this will really

  • confound them

  • Thanks to Robert Krulwich and Jetta Boomrod from Radio Lab for helping out with this

  • piece. You're welcome. If you haven't yet heard the collection of Radio Lab

  • episodes this videos a companion to head over to radio lab org and look for the

  • things, skull, and kilogram episodes. There's also a short audio story I put

  • together while visiting the radio lab team in New York.

I'm Craig Childs, I'm a writer and traveler

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