Stories of books gone missing are coming out of the woodwork and a common theme seems to be that whoever is doing the stealing, isn’t taking the time to make sure no incriminating evidence is left behind.
Years ago, a friend of mine published a novel with a publisher that was in a lot of transition. So she ordered a case of her own book from Barnes and Noble, thinking she would use it to do some mailings of her own. Then she went on tour, forgot about it all, and returned to New York to find a huge stack of the book at The Strand–with her invoice folded inside the top copy. Somehow her crate of books, shipped via UPS, had been “delivered” to the Strand.
UPDATE on CNN Mailroom Theft: Chris Ariens over at TVNewser has the word from a CNN insider on what might have happened to that book here.