NEW YORK COMPUTERS STOLEN http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/33/49/all_oldstonehouse_2010_12_02_bk.html

This means war! American Revolution shrine burglarized!

BY GERSH KUNTZMAN

The Brooklyn Paper

One of America’s most-important Revolutionary War sites — the Old Stone House in Park Slope — was burglarized by thieves who stole two computers and cash overnight on Nov. 21.

Police say that the fiendish Redcoat entered the historic museum — a recreation of the famous stone farmhouse where Maryland soldiers held off the British so that George Washington and his troops could flee to Manhattan — and helped himself to the two computers, plus $200 that had been in a safe bolted to the floor.

The colonial-era museum — a repository on information about the Battle of Brooklyn, the first major engagement in the War of Independence — was closed at the time of the break in, though there was no sign of forced entry, cops said.

Kim Maier, who runs the museum and cultural center, said the loss of two computers was troubling, but not only because such equipment is hard for a nonprofit group to come by.

“It’s disconcerting that someone would want to steal from a community group,” she said.

Much of the information in the hard drives — including, ironically, a fundraising letter that was about to be mailed to supporters — was backed up. But Maier can’t retrive one personal item with special meaning — a letter opener given to her by the operators of Stirling Castle in Scotland, the ancestral home of William Alexander, a hero of the Battle of Brooklyn.

“It was in the drawer and the thief must have just grabbed it because it looked cool,” she said.

The letter opener was a cherished momento of one of Maier’s personal heroes, the hunky Lord Stirling, who led the doomed Marylanders who held off the British and Hessian soldiers to give Washington time to escape from that 1776 standoff.

Maier said she especially appreciated how Stirling handled the end of the battle.

“He surrendered to the Hessians rather than the British — out of spite,” she said.

Tax deductable donations to replace the stolen computers are welcome. Please call (718) 768-3195

©2010 COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER GROUP