Two men have pleaded guilty to stealing more than $2 million in baseball cards from an Ohio hotel, Cleveland19 News reported Thursday.
Former hotel employee Jacob Paxton, 27, pleaded guilty to aggravated theft, and Jason Bowling, 51, pleaded guilty to receiving stolen property.
Paxton and Bowling were arrested in May after 54 cards, valued at $2,123,447, went missing from a Best Western Hotel in Strongsville, Ohio.
Shipped via FedEx by auction house Memory Lane in April, the cards were meant to be displayed at the Strongsville Sports Collectors Convention prior to an upcoming auction.
That package was signed for but later couldn’t be located when a Memory Lane employee attempted to claim it.
According to Cleveland19 News, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley said Strongsville police found Paxton, who quit his job at the hotel during the investigation, had gone through packages delivered to the hotel prior to taking the baseball cards to Bowling at his home in Cleveland.
With a lead on a suspect, police advised Memory Lane to proceed with the auction rather than pull the cards.
Police later executed a search warrant at Bowling’s home in May and recovered 52 of the 54 stolen cards. A 1909 T204 Ramly Walter Johnson PSA 5 and a 1941 Play Ball Ted Williams PSA 8 still haven’t been found — both cards had their certification numbers intentionally deactivated by PSA on May 9.
A number of rare Cracker Jack cards and high-grade cards of Mickey Mantle and Roberto Clemente are believed to be among the cards initially stolen but recovered.
Paxton and Bowling are scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 16.
Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct.