Two longtime Dodgers security guards and a southern California eBay seller are facing charges in connection with the theft of game-used and game-issued memorabilia at Dodger Stadium last year.
As we reported last week, a team attorney happened to be searching eBay late last year when he came across listings for Dodgers items that he knew shouldn’t have been available for purchase. The team set up video cameras in case the thieves returned and twice last December, they did.
The Los Angeles Times rep
orted the two security guards, Juan Prada and Fernando Sierra, along with the person who had been posting items for sale, Jesse Dagnesses, are facing charges in the case. LAPD investigators searched the homes of all three men, who were arrested on charges of suspicion of burglary and charged a few weeks ago with conspiracy to commit a crime.
According to the newspaper, eBay records show Dagnesses had been selling player jerseys, bats and hats as well as cases of unused official Major League Baseballs since late 2013. Dagnesses, who according to court records, used the eBay seller ID ‘swinghard33’, is still active online selling cell phones but was selling cases of new baseballs in January, although it isn’t known of those specific lots were part of the baseballs listed by the team as stolen. Last July, swinghard33 sold a Joc Pederson “game issued” jersey for $1,700 and in October, eBay records show a game-used Peterson bat was sold for $770. Whether those items were part of the investigation is also undertermined. Speaking with the newspaper, Dagnesses’ attorney Jacob Glucksman denied his client had any criminal involvement with the case.
Dodgers’ counsel Chad Gunderson, who reached out to the Swinghard33 account when he discovered them being offered online, shared a message with investigators in which the seller allegedly told him via email that a Don Mattingly jersey he inquired about “was pulled off the rack from Dodger Stadium” but declined to provide more details. The Times report indicated an affidavit also included the seller telling Gunderson “my contact works at the stadium” and that the items “were intercepted before making it down to the clubhouse.”
The Times reported some of the items, including two Corey Seager jerseys, two Clayton Kershaw bats and 17 dozen baseballs have been returned to the Dodgers.
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