Nearly 18 years after he’s accused of stealing them, a Minnesota man has been charged with the theft of Dorothy’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz.
A federal grand jury handed down the indictment on Tuesday, charging Terry Jon Martin with “theft of an object of cultural heritage,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office has revealed.
Cole is accused of stealing the slippers – which are valued at $3.5 million -- from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota in August 2005, prosecutors say. Although the pilfered goods were recovered in 2018, prosecutors have not revealed why it took another five years to file charges against Cole.