An estimated $200,000 USD worth of Star Wars merchandise was stolen from Steve Sansweet, the owner of the world's largest private collection of Star Wars memorabilia.
The collection, which Sansweet has accumulated over the last 40 years, contains 400,000 items in total, according to ABC7 News (via Variety). Notable items include a $5,000 USD wind-up R2D2, a $1,000 USD cardboard Death Star, and "every action figure."
The Bay Area collector says he began buying memorabilia because it was like "bringing home a piece of the movie." He added, "I didn’t mean to have the world’s largest collection, it just happened."
Of the 400,000 items, over 120 were reported stolen. Sansweet says he suspected the items were stolen by a trusted friend, and his suspicion was seemingly accurate, as that "friend" was recently arrested for selling stolen goods.
Star Wars' Mark Hamill caught wind of the story and took to Twitter to offer some advice on how to prevent the stolen items from being resold. "Maybe publish a list of stolen items to protect potential victims from purchasing 'hot' merchandise," said the actor, adding the hashtag "TheFraudIsStrongInThisOne."
Sansweet is hopeful some of the stolen items will one day return to his collection. "There's a lot of stuff still very much in the air," he said. "But we have faith in the force."
Jordan is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter @jdsirani.
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