Israeli thief returns ancient Roman artifacts with note saying they brought 'lots of troubles'

JERUSALEM – Israel's Antiquities Authority says an anonymous Israeli robber left two 2,000-year-old Roman sling stones at a museum with a typed note saying the stolen artifacts "brought me lots of troubles."

An employee of the Museum of Islamic and Near Eastern Cultures in Beersheva, Israel, said Monday he found the artifacts in a bag in the museum courtyard last week.

The robber wrote that he or she stole the artifacts 20 years ago from ancient Gamla, a Jewish town in the Golan Heights that was the site of a Roman siege in the first century.

The robber ended the note with the message, "Do not steal antiquities!" There was also a map of the site in the bag with an "X'' marked on it, likely marking where the stones were taken.