THEY STOLE THOUSANDS OF DRAFT FILES

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]They stole thousands of draft files. On August 22nd, 1971, 28 anti-war activists broke into a draft board office in Camden, New Jersey. The group included Catholic priests, a rabbi, and Vietnam War protesters carrying homemade lock tools and empty mail bags. Inside the office, they searched [music] through selective service records tied to young men facing the Vietnam draft. An FBI informant named Bob Hardy had secretly helped plan the entire operation for months before the break-in. The activists hauled away nearly every file [music] they could carry while police closed in around the building. Sirens echoed through the dark streets outside.

[00:00:33]At trial in 1973, jurors learned the FBI informant had encouraged the operation and supplied equipment himself. All 28 defendants were acquitted in one of the biggest anti-war trial victories of the Vietnam era. The files were gone forever.

[00:00:46]>> [music] >> Camden 28, New Jersey, 1971. History gets stranger daily.