Police are investigating the theft of hundreds of NBA and NHL jerseys from the offices of MeiGray Group in Branchburg, New Jersey last month.
Included are dozens of jerseys once worn by some of pro basketball’s biggest stars including Blake Griffin, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Love, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade, John Wall, Dwight Howard, DeMarcus Cousins and others. All had been authenticated and tagged.
MeiGray President Barry Meisel says the building that serves as the company’s Branchburg, NJ office and warehouse was burglarized early on the morning of December 29. While unwilling to place a specific dollar figure on the theft, he pegged the total value of the items stolen in the “hundreds of thousands.”
The vast majority of the items were game-worn jerseys, which had already been authenticated with individually serial-numbered security tags. The jerseys date from games dating back several seasons. MeiGray has partnerships with the NBA and NHL to authenticate and sell game jerseys.
A total of 488 items were stolen during the break-in, including 450 game jerseys, mostly from NBA teams and some used during playoff games. Included on an inventory list of stolen items (available below) were three Bryant jerseys, seven Griffin jerseys, 13 Howard shirts, ten worn by Wall, five each donned by Love, Wade and Cousins, three Steve Nash and four Pau Gasol Lakers jerseys and seven each worn by Kevin Garnett and Chris Bosh.
The list of stolen NHL items included goal pucks from Alex Ovechkin, Filip Forsberg, Steve Stamkos and John Tavares. There was also a signed Wayne Gretzky jersey that was not game worn and several autographed caps worn on NBA Draft night by the top 2015 rookies.
On its inventory list of stolen items, MeiGray has noted the specific games in which each item was worn.
Meisel says he hopes that since each of the stolen items can be identified by the MeiGray inventory number, anyone who acquires or is offered some of the merchandise will contact authorities.
Branchburg Police (908) 526-3830 and Somerset County, NJ (908) 231-7140 detectives are investigating the crime.
Click for a list of items stolen from MeiGray
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