Orioles Employee Caught Stealing Memorabilia

[bigtime59]

From todays Baltimore Sun:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/baseball/bal-md.baserunner14dec14,0,5135121.story?coll=bal-sports-baseball

A must read for the collecting community!

Mark
bigtime39@aol.com

[kingjammy24]

"acquired from an impeccable team source!"

i'm surprised we haven't seen more of these types of stories.

personally, i'm waiting for a story of an equipment manager gone astray who secretly ordered boxes of jerseys and sold them as "game used".

who can forget this one:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1742395

rudy.

[allstarsplus]

As far as I know, Fefel was at least selling real items. I know someone who bought some great items from him.

[kingjammy24]

real or not, i'm not sure how happy your friend feels now that they're in possession of stolen property. i wouldn't be surprised if they received a call shortly from the police and/or orioles to relinquish the items.

who cares about authenticity when the items are stolen?

rudy.

[CansecoPower33]

I wouldn't trust a thief with any word given on authenticity.

I think the police may want specific items, such as the Cal Ripken bases, and anything else that can't be replaced. The bulk of what he sold appears to be of little value to the team.

[ironmanfan]

When I first read that article on-line, I knew that name (Ferfel; ID "vedderwood") rang a bell & checked my eBay buying history & saw he was the seller from who I bought a Ripken "Farewell" GU base from back in August.

[allstarsplus]

In possession of stolen property is a complicated situation. The story probably isn't finished. This guy was selling game used jerseys and the infamous Cal Ripken 2001 retirement bases which had MLB #'d holograms on them.

Here is his eBay feedback of over 280 transactions. This wouldn't include transactions where no feedback was left of where sales were outside of eBay.

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=vedderwood

Receiving stolen goods is generally buying or acquiring the possession of property knowing (or believing in some jurisdictions) that it had been obtained through theft, embezzlement, larceny, or extortion by someone else. The crime is separate from the crime of stealing the property.

To be convicted, the receiver must know the goods were stolen at the time he receives them and had the intent to aid the thief. Paying for the goods or intending to collect the reward for returning them are not defenses. Depending on the value of the property received, receiving-stolen-property is either a misdemeanor or a felony.

There are numerous federal laws that make it a federal crime to receive stolen property (e.g., vehicles, securities) if the property received was or had been in interstate commerce.

[jake33]

That is true, I am suprised there aren't more stories like that out there. A friend of mine Cale Kirby went to college with me and now is an assistant equipment manager for the Packers ( i even see him every week on the sidelines on tv). I always have begged him for one of Hardy nickerson's old packer jerseys, he said that I wouldn't believe how much many jerseys are still laying around from 12 -15 years ago in the lockerroom. Even after bribbing he wouldn't budge which was a credit to his part. He said the first day he started even as an intern the first thing said by red batty, "if anything is missing, you're gone."

Gosh, it makes me wonder how many of the jerseys i own were "back doored"

[ironmanfan]

The thing that surprised me was that his eBay ID was still an active one too!

[bigtime59]

The eBay seller ID is still active because vedderwood isn't Jeremy Fefel. He was using a friend as a cut-out man (or in this case, woman).

[allstarsplus]

When I first read that article on-line, I knew that name (Ferfel; ID "vedderwood") rang a bell & checked my eBay buying history & saw he was the seller from who I bought a Ripken "Farewell" GU base from back in August.

Ironmanfan - Are you concerned that you may have one of the 2 Ripken Farewell bases they mentioned in the article?

[bigtime59]

BTW, this is mostly being played for laughs on the Orioles Hangout board...

http://www.orioleshangout.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41773

Mark
bigtime39@aol.com

[ironmanfan]

Andrew, I'm really not concerned. They busted this guy 3 months ago & have his entire eBay selling history in front of them (with buyers names, addresses, etc.). I would think that someone would have contacted me by now if there was an issue. As an aside, I am having lunch with a member of the Orioles PR staff on Tuesday who is a good friend of mine & I will ask him what the plan is (as far as buyers are concerned). Are you concerned?

[allstarsplus]

Luckily I didn't purchase from him, but I know someone who did and was concerned for him when I initially read the article. Since he made a $5,000 restitiution back to the team, that may be a good sign for the buyers.

Andrew

[bigtime59]

Andrew, I'm really not concerned. They busted this guy 3 months ago & have his entire eBay selling history in front of them (with buyers names, addresses, etc.). I would think that someone would have contacted me by now if there was an issue. As an aside, I am having lunch with a member of the Orioles PR staff on Tuesday who is a good friend of mine & I will ask him what the plan is (as far as buyers are concerned). Are you concerned?

I really wouldn't expect the Orioles to go hard after this stuff. Most of what he walked out with was retail product or SGAs. Would be very interested in how they're going to approach the jerseys and/or bases, though. Rumor has it that JF was not the only sticky-fingered Orioles employee last season...would love to know what your guy has to say about that!

Mark
bigtime39@aol.com

[ironmanfan]

The other issue is that I had Cal sign & date the base for me within days of it's receipt so if anything, I've probably enhanced the value. I'll report back what I hear next week...

[mr.miracle]

Hello Gang:

Just got back from two weeks out of town and out of internet touch. I saw this story and also the story was emailed to me by a friend. I was the other buyer of the Ripken game used base that was apparently stolen. I too like Ironmanfan bought it off ebay back in August and also recently had it inscribed and signed by Cal. This is a very, very troubling situation. I would like to hear from Ironmanfan as to what he finds out about this from his team PR friend. Obviously none of us were aware of this situation prior to buying from Mr. Fefel. In fact, when I asked him specifics about how he obtained the base prior to bidding he told me he obtained it from the Orioles directly during a charity auction I belive at the end of the 2001 season. He said he had inside contacts through the team and knew when this type of stuff would become available. I guess the inside contact was the key to the storage room. Anyway, I obviously want to make sure that this is handled properly and will cooperate in whatever way I can to make this right.

Thanks