2 charged in Hubbel, other area burglaries

By John Christian Hopkins
Diné Bureau

GANADO, Ariz. — Brothers Maxwell Garihan and Gary Paul Garihan lived in a place named Crook and they apparently intended to live up to the Colorado town's name.

The Garihan brothers have been arrested in connection with the break-in at the Hubbell Trading Post and theft of antique rugs and other artifacts from historic sites in Nebraska and Arizona.

They now face federal charges of knowingly transporting stolen goods across state lines, after the brothers sold some of the artifacts to an antique dealer in Denver and attempted to sell more to a dealer in Wheat Ridge, Colo., according to National Park Service agents.

Thousands of dollars worth of Navajo rugs, moccasins, American Indian war shirts and other memorabilia were recovered in Colorado, including some artifacts traced to famed Sioux chief Red Cloud.

A federal affidavit says Maxwell Garihan sold several Navajo rugs to Lewis Bobrick, a Denver antique dealer who did not know the artifacts were stolen. Bobrick checked the usual Web sites where traders keep information about stolen goods before he purchased the rugs. He also searched for the rugs on Google to determine if there was any trouble associated with them, and came up empty.

"I am always nervous when I buy anything from a stranger," Bobrick said, as reported by the Denver Post. "Rarely do walk-ins have this good of stuff. I proceeded with the deal and wrote the guy a check. Usually a thief won't take a check."

Bobrick returned the rugs when he found out they were contraband and lost more than $15,000.

The case began on May 6, when thieves used a sledgehammer to break into the Hubbell Trading Post and stole $80,000 in Navajo rugs.

The post is a National Historic Site owned by the National Park Service. On July 9, the Agate Fossil Beds Visitor Center in Harrison, Neb., was also burglarized and most of the James Cook-Red Cloud Collection consisting of war shirts, clubs, moccasins and other late 1800s Plains artifacts were removed.

Pat Gavin, a special agent for the Park Service, said the total value of all the items stolen and damage caused to the display cases totaled $120,000.

On July 14, the brothers were arrested while fishing after a ranger ran one of their names off a fishing license and discovered there was a warrant for his arrest.

Twenty-eight marijuana plants were found at the brothers' home in Crook, according to the affidavit.

Agents found a duffel bag full of some of the artifacts dumped under some brush in Logan County. Agents managed to obtain blood evidence at the scene of one crime because the thief cut himself while breaking the glass.

Maxwell Garihan was identified as a suspect in the case by the identification left on Bobrick's canceled check, according to the affidavit.

The Navajo rugs are highly valued one of those taken in the break-in was worth an estimated $19,000, National Park Service Special Agent Brian O'Dea said. The rugs were of various sizes, with the largest being about 6 feet by 8 feet.

"This was a crime of opportunity," O'Dea said at the time of the Ganado break-in.

Hubbell Trading Post is the oldest continuously operated trading post on the Navajo reservation. The trading post was purchased by John Lorenzo Hubbell in 1878, who established himself as one of the leading traders of his time.