A Park Service employee is caught on tape telling how she swindled two WWII vets out of land worth millions more. Federal land grabs aren t funny but this woman thinks it s just hysterical. We went out to the mine and the owners were two little guys that had been in the Second World War,  a California park service employee recalls at a retirement celebration for Mojave National Preserve Superintendent Mary Martin in 2005. The employee brags about how the veterans  mine was appraised by the federal government at $40 million, and acquired for a paltry $2.5 million. We did get it appraised and we did acquire it for $2.5 million which I stole the money from Washington to acquire it,  the employee in the video admits, adding that it s sometimes hard to bamboozle property owners due to the agency s reputation. Lands  isn t always supported because we re the  bad guys.  We come in, and we take this land. And we always take it for less than it s worth.  Later during the celebration dinner, another park service employee reveals that the acquisition of more than a hundred thousand private acres in the Mojave National Preserve were procured under Martin s leadership, who he labels the  acquisition queen.   Acres acquired under the acquisition queen s regime, 111,550.54 acres,  an employee announces in an extended clip of the dinner. The employee then shows two other numbers, 5.66 and 106,375.36, which correlate with the park where Martin would be relocating, the Lassen Volcanic National Park. He indicates that the larger number is the acreage of Lassen National Park, while the smaller number is acreage privately owned.  If you own those 5.66 acres, would you be sweating right now?  the man jests referring to Martin s acquisition power. The employees  jaw-dropping admissions amid joyful applause, smiles and celebration over the confiscation of two World War II veterans  and others  private land goes to prove the federal government is not at all concerned with  land preservation  and focuses mainly on predatory land grabs. 