Suspect Pleads Guilty To Stealing More Than $100,000 From World’s Largest ‘Star Wars’ Collection

Last month, Rancho Obi-Wan, which houses the largest collection of Star Wars memorabilia on the planet, revealed that nearly 100 rare and irreplaceable items had been stolen by someone they had trusted, valued at over $100,000. Earlier this week, Carl Cunningham pleaded guilty to one count of felony grand theft. He now faces four years in prison when he is sentenced in September.

Steve Sansweet, president and CEO of the nonprofit Rancho Obi-Wan, revealed the news on the organization’s website last month.

“This has become the spiritual home, in a way, for Star Wars collectors,” Sansweet told The L.A. Times. “For somebody to come in and steal items from that reference collection, to steal major and important items that I treasure from an emotional standpoint, not from a financial standpoint…has been really devastating.”

“We’re starting to hear from people saying, ‘I want to make sure this gets back to Rancho Obi-Wan,’” Sansweet revealed after posting his message online. “My hope would be that everyone will be compensated for what they bought and will be willing to return the items to Rancho, but that all depends on an insurance settlement. And that’s never easy with insurance companies.”

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Sansweet made the realization back in February after another collector, Philip Wise, revealed that he had a rare figure stolen from his personal collection, resulting in another collector revealing to Wise that he had purchased the item from Cunningham. The collector then compiled a detailed list of all the Star Wars items he had purchased from Cunningham in recent years, only to discover that some of these items had been stolen from Rancho Obi-Wan.

Cunningham surrendered himself to authorities in March.

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Rancho Obi-Wan has posted a list of some of the items missing from their collection and asks for help in tracking down where Cunningham could have sold these items.

Rancho Obi-Wan has amassed over 350,000 items over the years, earning it a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest collection of Star Wars items.

Although this verdict doesn’t get Rancho Obi-Wan any closer to having the items returned to their collection, it’s at least proof that justice is being served and that Cunningham can no longer steal pieces of history for his own personal gain ever again.