![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/thomasbird-300x169.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Lt. Thomas Bird<\/p>\n
One of our ninjas sends us a disturbing tale of someone profiting off of the valor of a fallen war hero by peddling counterfeit medals and awards in his name, at auction. The auction house is denying any inappropriate sales based on the word of the consignor, who has had a medal hobby for 40 years.<\/p>\n
Major problem though, seems the Bird family has possession of the original medals.<\/p>\n
Jon Delano<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n MT. LEBANON (KDKA) \u2014 A local family wants answers after they found their loved one\u2019s military medals up for auction online.<\/p>\n The problem is they say they have the real medals.<\/p>\n Bird Park in Mt. Lebanon, named after the community\u2019s first resident killed in Vietnam, is a quiet and serene place.<\/p>\n But now a controversy involving Lt. Thomas Bird\u2019s medals is raising a storm.<\/p>\n Bird, a Marine helicopter pilot, was shot down and killed in Vietnam.<\/p>\n \u201cTo know that somebody is making a dime off my brother\u2019s sacrifice makes me sick,\u201d Bird\u2019s brother Jon told KDKA\u2019s Jon Delano on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, members of the Bird family learned that some of their brother\u2019s service medals were being auctioned off in Ohio.<\/p>\n Just one problem. The family has all of his original medals.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re counterfeit,\u201d said John Bird.<\/p>\n The auction was discovered by the Historical Society of Mt. Lebanon, which monitors Mt. Lebanon online memorabilia.<\/p>\n \u201cIf this is legit and real and the family is okay with this, we\u2019d love to bring these medals back to Mt. Lebanon,\u201d said Jim Wojcik, past president of the Historical Society.<\/p>\n But the Bird family said they have all their brother\u2019s medals.<\/p>\n So what was the auction house selling?<\/p>\n In an email, the auction house insists they sold Lt. Bird\u2019s real medals, with Miles King writing the family, \u201cI have spoken with the consignor about the situation and he feels they are authentic. So you understand that he is a very knowledgeable collector that has been in the hobby over 40 years.\u201d<\/p>\n Turns out service medals are readily available online, meaning anyone can buy for as little as $35 and resell them.<\/p>\n Unhappy that this was happening, Kelly Bird, another brother, called the auction house and spoke to the owner.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was very rude actually,\u201d Kelly Bird said. \u201cHe said to me, \u2018It\u2019s not like your brother was the first soldier to shoot the first Vietnam guy, so these medals aren\u2019t going to go for a lot of money.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo I kept my cool and said, \u2018Miles, that\u2019s not the reason I\u2019m calling. We\u2019d like them to be taken off the auction itself.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n That request was refused, and the three medals were auctioned last week for $1,250.<\/p>\n The auction house insists that the medals they auctioned really did belong to Lt. Bird and say the family offered no evidence that they weren\u2019t genuine.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The medals? The Purple Heart, Air Medal and Distinguished Flying Cross.\u00a0 Since there is nothing helpful I can say here, I’ll say nothing. Fair winds and following seas, LT Bird.<\/p>\n Read the rest here:\u00a0Pittsburgh CBS Local<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
![Pittsburgh CBS Local<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lt. Thomas Bird One of our ninjas sends us a disturbing tale of someone profiting off … Family Says Fake Military Medals Of Mt. Lebanon War Hero Are Being Sold At Online Auctions<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[331],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/657"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=94893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94896,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94893\/revisions\/94896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/pittsburgh.cbslocal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15909642\/2020\/01\/thomasbirdauction.jpg\"){kind=link}