Todd Peak, the library’s head of security, was arrested on February 4, 2022 on charges of grand theft over $100,000, dealing in stolen property, and the sale of stolen property using the Internet. He was released on bail.
Last September, the FSU libraries reported that 4,996 items had been stolen from the Robert M. Ervin Jr. collection of magazines and comics. The works in the collection dated from 1920 to 1978, and they went missing between March 2020 and February 2021 (see “Almost 5,000 Comics and Pulp Magazines Stolen from University Collection”).
The owners of Wilde Comics in Crawfordsville, Florida were among those who raised suspicions about Peak, who had sold some comics to the store. “It is too great of a coincidence that Peak works at Strozier Library where the comic books were stolen and just so happened to possess all the same comic books listed as stolen,” the newspaper quotes them as telling investigators.
Peak had advertised on a Facebook page that he wanted to downsize his collection, and police found Facebook messages in which he negotiated with buyers. They also learned that he had had 14 of the comics graded.
So far, police have recovered 2,843 items, according to the newspaper report.
