Police Beam ‘Star Trek’ Fan Into Jail Cell

A 25-year-old Reseda resident, described by police as a fan of the popular television “Star Trek” series, has been arrested for possession of costumes allegedly stolen from Paramount Studios in Hollywood.

The arrest was the first related to a series of “Star Trek” thefts over the last two years, Los Angeles police said.

Officers said they found Kevin Buehler with $50,000 worth of costumes and hardware from the original television series and its descendants, “Star Trek: The Next Generation” television show and various “Star Trek” movies.

The gear is all that has been recovered of $150,000 of wardrobe items believed taken from Paramount, where “Star Trek” is filmed, police said.

Buehler was arrested last week, and has pleaded not guilty to possession of stolen goods. He is in custody at the L.A. County Jail, with bail set at $50,000.

Police said they were led to Buehler by another “Star Trek” fan incensed that Buehler was peddling ill-gotten treasures from one of the most popular American television shows.

A studio fan from childhood, Buehler wanted to swap the “Star Trek” items for the informant’s car, a replica from another show, according to police.

Buehler told police that he bought the items from another collector, officers said. Although he served an eight-month prison term in 1987 for breaking into Paramount Studios the year before, Buehler has not been implicated in the recent rash of “Star Trek” burglaries.

The real “Star Trek” artifacts are considered rare and valuable by the “Trekkies,” as the show’s thousands of hard-core devotees are known.

“What he’s got from 20 years ago, it’s like lost treasure,” said Gary Berman of Creation Conventions, a Mineola, N.Y., firm that stages 70 “Star Trek” and science-fiction conventions a year around the country. “It’s like the guy who looked in the ocean for gold and finally found it.”

Berman said he is periodically approached at the conventions by people wanting to sell him authentic “Star Trek” regalia. He added: “We always ask for proof of how they’ve gotten it. . . . The word is out that stuff was missing from Paramount.”

Recently, Berman said, he auctioned a couple of original props from the show after the owner gave him a letter indicating that his father had gotten the items when he worked at Paramount. The pieces, weaponry props, weren’t considered that desirable.

“It wasn’t what a person would go out of his way to collect,” Berman said. Nonetheless, they fetched $1,000.

“The market on collectibles of this type of stuff has gone through the roof,” Berman continued. “People who saw the show in the ‘60s have grown up to an age where they have the ability to purchase things that will bring back the wonderful memory of gathering around the TV.”

Paramount isn’t saying much about Buehler’s arrest or the four burglaries of “Star Trek” props that the studio has experienced during the last two years. Said a studio spokesman: “Paramount commends the LAPD on the results of their ongoing effort to stop the illicit trafficking of stolen entertainment memorabilia.”

Detective John L. Winchester of the LAPD’s Hollywood Division even attended a “Star Trek” convention in Los Angeles earlier this year to watch for the missing costumes. He only saw people walking around in replica uniforms with antennae perched on top of their heads. Winchester stayed in street clothes.

“It’s a police investigation, after all,” he said.