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02-09-2003, 09:43 AM
Posted By: <b>Steve Tuttle </b><p> Ok, granted, this isn't baseball card-related, but it sure is satisfying to read:<BR><BR>NEW YORK -- Two men have been arrested for allegedly trying to sell part of a $2 million stamp collection that vanished from the trunk of a Florida rental car four years ago. <BR><BR>The men, Ulysses Cheda and Jose Palmer, were charged Friday in U.S. District Court with transporting stolen goods. They were arrested Thursday after they sold some of the stamps to a gallery owner, prosecutors say. <BR><BR>The stolen collection included extremely rare stamps such as New York State five-cent stamps issued in 1845 as well as Confederate stamps worth $400,000. <BR><BR>The collection disappeared in February 1999 in Sarasota, Fla. Dealer Stanley Piller, in town for a stamp exhibition, said he left his car to get directions and returned a few minutes later to find the trunk open and the stamps gone. <BR><BR>Cheda and Palmer allegedly tried to sell a New York gallery owner $100,000 worth of stamps last month. The owner, whose name was not released by authorities, recognized the stamps as part of the collection stolen from Piller and called authorities. <BR><BR>Cheda and Palmer were arrested after the gallery owner paid them $50,000 for a box of stamps, federal agents said. They also recovered a 50-pound box that appeared to contain thousands of collectible stamps. <BR>