How could you possibly verify the authenticity of this flag? Maybe an eye-witness could be found, "Yup, I’d recognize it anywhere – 50 stars and 13 stripes – just like the one I saw."
Minnesota buyer balks, Pentagon flag back up for sale [Associated Press]
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – The Minnesotan who made the top bid for an American flag in an online auction has backed out of the sale and the flag was put back up for auction.
David Nicholson of Orange, Virginia, put the flag up for auction on eBay, saying it had been flying over a construction crane at the Pentagon during the September Eleventh terrorist attack. He said he was selling the flag to raise money for his kidney cancer treatment.
Twenty-six-year-old Todd Schimmel of Mound, Minnesota, won the auction yesterday with a bid of $371,300. But Schimmel backed out after it was questioned whether the flag was really flying during the terrorist attack.
Schimmel didn’t return phone calls from The Associated Press. A request for comment e-mailed to the eBay account of the high bidder brought a brief response: "Flag is a fake I’m not accepting."
Nicholson said he called Schimmel, and that Schimmel told him he did not want the flag and hung up on him.