North Carolina's Famous Sting Operation

NBHS Historian/Claudia Houston

Did you know that the original copy of the Bill of Rights that was sent to North Carolina in 1789 was stolen and missing for over one hundred forty years?  This is the story of its theft and recovery.

After the American Revolution, North Carolina refused to ratify the proposed Constitution without a Bill of Rights. Once it was included, North Carolina ratified the Federal Constitution and became the twelfth state to join the union.  George Washington sent a personal letter in 1789 to each of the thirteen states.  He included a handwritten copy of the original constitutional amendments passed by Congress.

North Carolina placed its copy of the Bill of Rights in the Capitol Building in Raleigh.  However, in 1865 during the occupation of the city, a Union soldier stole it and brought it to his home in Ohio.  A year later, he sold it for $5 to Charles Shotwell, a salesman, who put it on his office wall.

In 1897, a newspaper article about Shotwell and his possession of the Bill of Rights came to the attention of the North Carolina Secretary of State. He contacted Shotwell and requested that the stolen document be returned to the people of North Carolina.  Shotwell refused, but later offered to sell it to the state for a large sum.  North Carolina refused to pay.  Almost thirty years later, in 1925, Shotwell’s son made an offer to sell the Bill of Rights to North Carolina.  The offer was again refused.

In 1995, the Bill of Rights resurfaced.  A Washington D.C. attorney, John Richardson, contacted North Carolina and offered to sell this document for three to ten million dollars.   North Carolina said no.

Connecticut antiques dealer, Wayne Pratt and his partner, Robert V. Matthews approached the Shotwell family in 2000 and purchased the document for $200,000. Pratt was known as a frequent guest on the PBS television series “Antiques Roadshow.”

John Richardson, Pratt’s attorney, again approached the state to obtain payment for the Bill of Rights which North Carolina refused to pay. Pratt then tried to sell it to the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia for four million dollars. The Center contacted experts at George Washington University who verified that the document was indeed North Carolina’s copy of the Bill of Rights by comparing the handwriting on the back of the document with the handwriting of the state docking clerk, who in 1789 had signed it for record-keeping purposes. Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell served on the Center’s board and contacted Governor Mike Easley of North Carolina and proposed that both states share the cost of purchase, and the Center would display it. Governor Easley refused and asked then State Attorney General Roy Cooper to work with the US Attorney’s Office in Raleigh to obtain the stolen document.

In March 2003, a sting operation was arranged with the FBI.  An agent, posing as a wealthy philanthropist, agreed to purchase the document.  The Center had agreed to help with the sting, and they provided a certified check in the amount of four million to the FBI agent.  All parties met with Richardson at a Philadelphia law firm.  He inspected the paperwork and the check, and then called a bicycle messenger waiting in a nearby coffee shop who soon appeared with the stolen Bill of Rights.  A signal was given to five FBI agents in an adjoining room, who burst in, and served a seizure warrant to the shocked attorney.

The Bill of Rights was recovered on March 18, 2003, and flown back to Raleigh on the jet of then FBI Director Robert Mueller.  Pratt gave up his right to the document, but his business partner continued to claim co-ownership.  It took five years of hearings but in 2008 North Carolina was declared to be the exclusive owner of its original Bill of Rights.

What was the value of this document?  An estimate of one hundred million dollars was cited, but the people of North Carolina and all those who fought for its return know the value.  It is priceless.