Rick Abath

Richard (Rick) Abath was 23 years old on the night of the Gardner Museum heist. He was working as a night watchman when he made the grievous error of allowing the thieves into the museum.

Authorities have long suspected that Abath, who now lives and works as a teacher’s aide in Vermont, may have been complicit in the theft. He’s cooperated fully with investigators throughout the process and claims he has passed FBI lie detector tests. However, suspicions around Abath’s possible involvement in the robbery arose again when investigators discovered the museum’s motion detector equipment had not picked up the presence of the two thieves in the museum’s Blue Room, where a Manet portrait was snatched. The last movement detected that night had been Abath’s footsteps on his initial patrol rounds before the robbery began.

— Written by Stephen Kurkjian