Comments about ‘Mesa bookstore owner happy to have stolen first-edition Book of Mormon found’

While it is admirable that she has helped past missionaries fund missions, I can't help but cringe that pages have been removed and sold from that historic book to do so. It lessen it value from the collecters view and takes away from the reverence we have of it. I hope she does not aell any more, but it is not my book so....

While it is nice to know that complete first edition copies of the Book of Mormon exist in environmentally controlled vaults where they will last as long as possible, I think that having a few out where some people can actually see and touch them is also good. Breaking this one up into individual pages dilutes, and yet spreads, those opportunities.

If the complete book is worth $40,000 and there are (just to use round numbers) 300 pages in the book, one only needs to sell the pages for $200 each to actually derive more value than the book as a whole. I suspect that she sold the pages for much more than $200 each. I also suspect that her motive in selling them was not to maximize her profit. At worst it would be a case of trying to have her cake and eat it to. I suspect that she is actually trying to maximize the good that can come from the book.

Personally, I would never break it up. Different strokes for different folks. As the previous poster said, it is her book.

As the Lord willeth, so will it be.

This is shocking, I knew this man, and cannot believe this..

I wonder if Linford gave up when his buyer (there HAD to be a buyer) found out that the book was incomplete. That could have been the factor that brought the book back to this lovely woman.

So glad it was found.

Good police and glad it was located so quickly.
So sad it was a "friend", but often that is how it goes.

Back to my original point on the original article, this lady needs to have much better security for an item like this and not just locks on a file cabinet.

Glad it was returned but sad it was a friend. She needs to have it secured better. As already posted, I wouldn't have broken the pages up but that is her decision.

I am extremely pleased that, that copy of the Book of Mormon was found, what a crushing feeling that must have been, to find out the book was gone. However, the book was not found in DC, it was actually in a town I grew up in, Herndon, Va.

Good news!

I am one of those fortunate ones to have held and had my picture taken with Helen's rare copy of the Book of Mormon - I was shocked and saddened to hear that someone had stolen something so precious from this dear woman and I am elated that it has been found.

There was a buyer---his name is Reid Moon. He is a rare books dealer and the owner of Moon's LDS Books in Dallas. I have known him (and his amazing family) for most of my life. The "deal" was what got the thief busted. Reid is so knowledgeable about rare books that he recognized the title page (which is the part that was being sold) as the most photographed title page of the First Edition Book of Mormons. He called the owner and cooperated with the FBI in securing the information needed for an arrest. Reid is an unsung hero in this situation----and his depth of expertise saved the day.