Reagan library suffers from shoddy collections accounting

Federal auditors on Thursday downplayed a recently concluded investigation that found that thousands of mementos belonging to former President Ronald Reagan may be missing.

The investigation found that the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley suffers from a shoddy accounting system and said officials were able to locate only 20,000 of about 100,000 Reagan items.

"This does not automatically mean the approximately 80,000 remaining items are missing," Paul Brachfeld, inspector general of the National Archives and Record Administration, said in a statement.

"The vast majority may very well be safely located within the library's storage facilities. Some of these items may be missing or stolen, or none of these items may be missing or stolen."

Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Thousand Oaks, whose home is just a few hundred yards from the library, said he spent the day making calls about the items.