An unidentified Englishman arrested Tuesday for the theft of a rare German World War II coder has been released on bail.
Police said the famous Abwehr Enigma decoding machine was stolen in broad daylight from the Bletchley Park Trust museum in London on April 1. It has not been recovered.
Milton Keynes police released few details of the Bedfordshire man who was arrested in connection with the crime, except to say that he's 50 years old. The suspect was not identified and the nature of the charges against him were not explained.
Meanwhile, investigators said they are hoping to identify the owner or driver of a small red Peugeot seen parked in the stable area at the back of the museum Saturday, in an area not open to the public. A woman was seen sitting in the driver's seat.
Trust officials said Wednesday that police have returned to the museum to continue searching for the machine, one of only two known coders like it in the world.
Trust director Christine Large said she is concerned that the machine could be damaged if it is indeed somewhere on the trust's grounds.
"If it has been left outside it may quickly deteriorate in the British weather, which is why the police are sparing no effort," she said.
And while the hunt continues on the ground in England, cryptographers worldwide have offered to help in the search by spreading the word of its disappearance, making it difficult for a thief to resell the machine.
Frode Weierud, a historian and Crypto Simulation Group member from Geneva, Switzerland, said he has studied the Enigma for years and takes its loss personally.
"I simply hate seeing one of the very rare Abwehr Enigma machine disappear," he said.
"We feel that in helping BP solving the case of the stolen Enigma, we can help recover a priceless historical artifact and at the same time give Bletchley Park and historical cryptography some well-needed publicity," Weierud said.
