John Iander
Reporting

(CBS13) Calif. It is quite a privilege to be allowed inside the buildings in the ghost town at Bodie.
These photographers will see this abandoned city from a vantage point most tourists cannot.

It's as if the town residents just walked away a century ago and left the dust in charge. This school room is a time capsule with old magazines and textbooks and a spectacularly weather beaten globe.

"This was the Wheaton and Hollis hotel," says Merv Nenstiel.

Bodie's maintenance supervisor Merv Nenstiel showed me how almost everything is still in place here including this collector's piece.

"Someone would give their eyeteeth to get this pool table," Merv says.

`And that's the problem, thieves and misguided tourists have been stealing historic items from Bodie despite a warning that says don't.

"Here in Bodie, if you take something home, you are liable to be followed by something else; a lot of bad luck," explains Merv.

So today a constant stream of stolen items from Bodie is coming home, in the mail, along with letter telling about the curse those who removed the items have experienced.

"A lot of people say they have a run of bad luck, so they get cancer, people die in their family that type of thing happens to them. Marriages split up, so they are happy to send it back, yeah, definitely, without a doubt," Merv says.

On this shelf is a collection of stolen and returned items, and these letters telling of that curse are now on display for visitors to read and heed.

But most visitors here seem to take back only memories and snapshots of this ghost town, David Ginsburg has been coming here since he was a kid.

"This is the pride of California and should not be torn down or let it just deteriorate and become nothing, it's a part of California history," says David.

Park rangers want you to know these buildings are under surveillance and alarmed, and if you take anything, even a nail or two, you can be arrested and fined. That is if the curse doesn't get you.