The Infamous Iowa Bandit Who Stole 23,000 Books

Let’s take a trip back in time, but probably not quite as far back as you might think.

The year was 1990.

If you drove past a simple, ordinary house in Ottumwa, Iowa, back then, you wouldn't have thought twice about it. But if you walked inside, your mind would have been blown.

Stacked floor-to-ceiling was a massive maze of over 23,000 rare, stolen books. We're talking 19 tons of paper hiding the walls and filling almost every inch of the house.

The craziest part? The guy living there wasn't selling them to make some extra cash. Stephen Blumberg was just an Iowa bookworm who couldn't stop stealing them. In a sense, he was addicted to adding to his collection.

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For over 20 years, Stephen Blumberg was a one-man cat burglar. He didn't smash windows or blow open safes. Instead, he target-hit 268 universities and libraries across 45 states using pure stealth.

These were "Mission Impossible" levels of infiltration, as Blumberg would squirm through 8-inch air vents, climb down elevator shafts, and even pick lock cylinders after the libraries were closed for the night. He would befriend janitors, casually pickpocketing their master keys, and make duplicate copies, before putting them back.

Blumberg would walk off with countless treasures, including a 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle, along with a first edition of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Blumberg wasn't doing it for the money any of this for the money. After all, he didn't really need it, as he lived off a $72,000-a-year family trust fund and never sold a single stolen book.

In his mind, he wasn't even a thief, he was a "caretaker", saving these rare books from college libraries who (in his mind) didn't fully appreciate them. In fact, he fully intended to leave all 23,000 volumes back to the schools in his will when he died.

Stephen Blumberg's luck finally ran out in March 1990 when an insider tipped off the FBI. When federal agents raided his home in Ottumwa, they couldn't believe their eyes.

It took team members multiple days to pack up the evidence, eventually loading 19 tons of books into a 40-foot semi-truck.

Blumberg ended up serving five years in prison, and (apparently) didn't learn his lesson, as he was arrested three more times for burglary.

This absurd feat earned him a permanent spot in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most prolific book thief in history, a record that still stands today.