BREAKING NEWS: Brazen Heist at the Museum of History & Industry

In an audacious daylight operation, priceless and rare antiques were removed from the Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) in what witnesses described as a “well-planned, flawlessly executed” heist. A couple was seen exiting a side door accompanied by a third woman, slipping away with surprising ease.

Three people leaving MOHAI with priceless antiques. Photo: QAHS 2025.

But the plot thickens.

Investigators traced the missing items, an antique child’s chair and dresser, to none other than the Bayview Retirement Community on Queen Anne. And that’s when the story took an unexpected historical turn.

The artifacts once belonged to George and Angeline Kinnear and were used by their young daughter around 1890. (Yes, those Kinnears, whose land donation created Kinnear Park.) Their home and acreage were later donated in 1956 by their son, Charles Kinnear, to the First Methodist Church of Seattle, with the stipulation that the land might be used for church functions, including a children’s or “old people’s” home. In 1961, the church and the not-for-profit it formed met the Kinnear's vision by opening the ten-story Bayview.

Monica Brown, Archivist for the Queen Anne Historical Society, has stepped forward to dispute all allegations of wrongdoing. She maintains that the so-called heist was, in fact, a legitimate transfer, MOHAI’s official donation to Bayview, coordinated by Monica herself, with the enthusiastic assistance of her “accomplice,” Anders Brown.  This account is confirmed by Kristin Halunen, MOHAI’s Director of Collections Resources, who said, “We are happy that these precious little pieces of furniture are back in their original home.”

Janey Smith with Kinnear daughter’s antique furniture at Bayview. Photo: QAHS 2025.

Yet history rarely ties up neatly. Bayview archivists Janey Smith and Sue Ranney uncovered a final wrinkle: the recorded donor, Alice R. Kinnear, isn’t even related to the Queen Anne Kinnears. A frustratingly inconclusive ending—but that’s the messy charm of history.