An attorney for the Los Angeles Dodgers who just happened to be surfing eBay for sports memorabilia helped nab two security guards selling stolen jerseys and bats.
According to a TMZ report, Chad Gunderson, Sr. Counsel for the Dodgers, was online late last year when he noticed an eBay seller had listed game-used Dodger memorabilia that shouldn’t have been available to the public. Among the items being offered were a jersey from Don Mattingly, who was the club’s manager at the time, an Adrian Gonzalez game jersey and bats with Yasiel Puig’s name on them.
Posing as a potential buyer, Gunderson conversed with the seller who told him he had “two very good sources at Dodger Stadium.” The seller indicated he’d been acquiring items from one source for 10 years and another for 20.
The team then set up a trap to see if those “sources” might strike again.
They placed hidden cameras in the clubhouse and equipment room. On December 5, 2015, the camera captured a man wearing dark clothing and a mask entering the clubhouse at 11:23 PM. He immediately turned off an automatic light switch, but the light stayed on long enough to reveal a pair of stainless steel handcuffs on his belt.
Figuring the culprit was likely a security guard, they overrode the light switch and six days later, in the middle of the night, two masked men again came into the clubhouse and stole bats, shoes, jackets, caps and a box of baseballs. This time, their Dodgers security jackets were visible and one of the men even donned Dodgers batting gloves while making off with the memorabilia.
TMZ says the two Dodgers security guards and the man who was selling their stolen items on eBay were arrested and charged with burglary and conspiracy to commit burglary. Both have pled not guilty.