HALIFAX—The Mounties held a show-and-tell today of antiques, rare books, historical letters and paintings they allege were brazenly stolen from across Atlantic Canada and put on display in a Halifax-area home.

Officers seized some 1,000 items last Friday from the two-storey home in Fall River, believed to be from universities, libraries, museums, antique dealers and private collections and worth more than $500,000.

A small sampling of the eclectic collection that was put on display for reporters ranged from the sentimental to the outlandish.

Sgt. Colin MacLean says one of the items — a red wooden chair — was snatched from a local senior citizen who regarded the simple piece of furniture as a family heirloom.

The clunky top half of a suit of armour, which was a prop from a movie, was pinched from an antique dealer in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley.

RCMP say their investigation began when officers pulled over a car last July and allegedly found a letter dated 1758 from British Gen. James Wolfe.

John Mark Tillmann is due in court on Feb. 27 on several counts of possession of stolen property.

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