Museum thief is sentenced

An exterminator was sentenced to prison Friday for stealing more than 2,000 exhibits -- including dolphin, leopard and bat skeletons -- in Australia’s biggest museum theft.

Dutch-born Hendrikus van Leeuwen, 50, was sentenced in the New South Wales state District Court to seven years imprisonment for stealing the exhibits over seven years from his employer, Sydney’s prestigious Australian Museum.

Van Leeuwen -- who hoarded the rarities, including the skull of an extinct Tasmanian tiger, at his Sydney home -- had “caused permanent harm to the ability of scientists to study many aspects of the natural history of Australia and the rest of the world,” the judge said.

Van Leeuwen was fired in 2003 after police found more than 2,000 specimens at his home.