A former Mariner’s Museum employee and his wife are facing a civil suit for allegedly stealing from the museum, and selling the items on eBay.

We found Lester Weber and his wife, Lori Childs, at their Newport News home, wanting to defend themselves after the Mariner's Museum filed a civil lawsuit claiming Weber and Childs "executed a scheme" while Weber worked at the museum.

He was the chief archivist for six years until last September when he was fired, according to museum management, for policy violations including stealing museum property.

In a civil lawsuit filed last month the museum claims Weber "wrongfully removed property legally belonging to the museum, which Weber and Childs sold to various purchasers around the world." Museum management alleges the couple made 160,000 dollars selling the items on eBay.

"I would never have stolen, never would steal from an employer. I really enjoyed working at the place. I don't understand where this is coming from."

Museum officials aren't talking about the case because of the lawsuit, but they say details will come out in court. The lawsuit states, as chief archivist, Weber was responsible for all aspects of the museum's historical documents and artifacts relating to the RMS Titanic exchibit, among others. The museum's spokesperson wouldn't say if the items in question were from that Titanic exhibit, only saying they were historical documents, things like maps, letters, and plans.

We checked out eBay finding bluprints of naval ships...not originals, but duplicates from originals. And because the lawsuit claims Weber and Childs "permanently altered" archival items, we asked museum officials if they believe Weber and Childs duplicated museum documents and sold those on eBay, but we received no clear answer..

We also asked Childs why she's named in the lawsuit.

"Because I am the one who had the ebay account. it's my whole little pocket money," said Childs.

Childs' admits she sells items on eBay for pocket money, but nothing stolen from the musem.

So far, this is just a civil lawsuit in circuit court. Federal and city authorities are investigating the allegations.