Ben Gone, Ben Recovered: Stolen Franklin Bust Retrieved from Thief

The missing Benjamin has been found.

It's Benjamin Franklin, of course, but it's not missing money we're talking about here. No, we're talking about a lot of money, actually, in the form of a bust worth $3 million that was stolen from an elderly Pennsylvania man.

George D'Angelo, an 85-year-old retired lawyer living in the Philadelphia suburb of Bryn Mawr, reported the theft of the bust, one of three made in 1778 by noted artist Jean-Antoine Houdon, on August 24. The culprit is apparently a woman who goes by various names and used to clean D'Angelo's house. She was arrested as she got off a bus in Maryland. Investigators found the missing bust in a duffle bag she was carrying. (It's not a huge bust, weighting in at 25 pounds and measuring up at 28 inches tall.)

The cleaner, by whatever name she goes these days, faces charges of theft, fraud, and (since she crossed state lines with the bust) interstate transportation of stolen property. She had apparently been fired by her employer, the cleaning company responsible for cleaning D'Angelo's house, three days before the bust went missing. She was then, apparently, seen driving away from Angelo's house on the day that the bust went missing. The evidence would have been entirely circumstantial but for the fact that she had the bust on her person when she got off that interstate bus.

So Mr. D'Angelo can look forward to having his rare Benjamin Franklin bust back on his mantle stand soon, as soon as the FBI finish dusting for fingerprints.

Great Caesar's Ghost Sandals

Like a good Shakespearean ghost, Caesar keeps on rising. Julius Caesar, that is, the subject of yet another story about ancient times, back in the news today, with the sandals giving it all away.

Archaeologists doing a dig in Germany have found evidence convincing them that they've uncovered the oldest known Roman military fortress in that country and that the fortress was probably built by none other than Caesar and his troops as they ripped through Gaul in the 1st Century B.C.

The dig is close to Hermeskeil, near the German border with France, and parts of the fort have been known for a few hundred years but have been covered up or eliminated through the normal wear-and-tear of civilization.

Now, though, the archaeologists who have been working at the site for the past couple of years have identified nails from sandals belonging to Caesar's soldiers (along with potsherds, of course) that tie the time to the place and the man to the time, as it were. 

The fort, by the way, is impressive, measuring about 45 acres, along with an 18-acre annex, which was once complete with a water spring.

So far, no Veni Vidi Vici graffiti (conjugated or not) has been found. It's only a matter of time, though. Caesar had a high opinion of himself and would have left some kind of calling card. Maybe they'll find some dice.

Drought Reveals Sunken Treasures

Mother Nature will always have the last laugh. Sometimes, we can share in it.

That's the situation in Poland, where a record low in the level of water in the Vistula River caused by a recent drought has unveiled a bunch of treasures stolen by Sweden invaders in the 17th Century. Seems the Swedes were eager to get away or too greedy or whatever and they loaded the barge too much and the whole thing sunk to the bottom of the river. They had planned to move the marble up the river from Warsaw to Gdansk and then out through the Baltic Sea, but it wasn't to be. And, not being skilled in dredging (or for some other mysterious reason), the Swedes decided to leave the stuff behind.

 The Vistula, the country's longest river, was a bit of a dumping ground during World War Two as well, as first Nazi Germany and then the Soviet Union occupied cities along the river. The same low water levels have revealed artifacts from the 1940s as well, and researchers have said that some recently uncovered Jewish gravestones would be turned over to Warsaw's Jewish Historical Institute.

 The heavy stuff stolen by the Swedes includes large blocks of carved marble that formed part of the foundation and interior of some splendid Polish palaces. It's not exactly lightweight, which is another reason that it has remained on the bottom of the river bed all these years. But, the drop in the water level of the river has effectively brought the marble closer to the surface and so modern technology can, without a supreme effort, get that marble out of the river and onto archaeologists' work tables where it belongs.

Paradoxically, the water level is a bit too low for the floating cranes needed to do the job. Mother Nature, always having the last laugh indeed.