OAKLAND, Calif. – A parolee has been sentenced to four years in prison for stealing a 19th-century Gold Rush-era jewelry box from a California museum.
U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag said Wednesday that Andre Taray Franklin was sentenced Tuesday for knowingly receiving and then selling the gold jewelry box that was stolen early last year from the Oakland Museum of California.
The 46-year-old Franklin pleaded guilty in March to stealing the box valued at more than $800,000.
Images on the box depict early California history. It was originally a wedding anniversary gift from a San Francisco pioneer to his wife.
Oakland police eventually recovered the box that investigators said Franklin had sold for $1,500.
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