Mel Ott Bat Stolen at National
 

My Mel Ott bat was stolen from John Taube's booth yesterday at the National. I purchased this bat in the recent July Hunt Auction and it had just been delivered to John at the show for grading. A police report has been filed and I am doing everything possible, including notifying auction houses and dealers. A pic of the bat is attached. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Scott Foraker
SFor9999@aol.com

Sorry to hear this, but good luck in recovering it!

Scott
 

I got an email about this earlier in the day. Very sorry to hear about this. I am sure that everyone will be keeping an eye out for it. If you keep at it long enough, there's a real chance that you will find it someday.

bats
 

Also received 2 emails on it and always will keep an eye out for it for you in the future. Sorry for your loss.

That really sucks. Sorry and hope you get it back soon. This is the stuff that makes me second guess this as my hobby.

bat
 

Hi Scott,
Very sorry to hear that! I also will keep my eyes and ears open for you! Al

Why? Their are thieves in every hobby where there are valuable items. I see the same unfortunate type of posts whenever there is a big comic or coin convention.

How could they let someone walk off with a $40,000 bat?

Brock, I know zero about bats. Is that really a $40,000 bat? What a heartbreaker.

With so many eyes now on the lookout, the thief (is it possible it was misplaced?) might have a difficult time selling it; and even if they do sell it, there is a chance it will surface eventually.

The bat cost over 40000 dollars.

The bat is great, with great provenance.
They ought to have security video tapes at the convention center - I am sure you have already, but make sure they save all the security tapes from the show. Ought to be many video cameras/tapes.
My best.

Is John Taube going to make you whole for the bat if it was stolen from his booth?

Just wondering how that part will play out?

I hope for both of y'alls sake that the bat is recovered


Mike

Stolen Bat
 

Man, what a loss. Does insurance cover something like that? I never
thought about something getting stolen when you leave it to be graded.
:(

First, I really appreciate your thoughts and support. Thank you. Yes, I bought the bat for $48,300 (w/ buyer's premium). I am hopeful that John Taube's insurance would cover the loss and there is reason to believe that it would. However, even if this is the case, as you guys can appreciate as collectors, the bat could not be replaced. I have been collecting bats for over 20 years and I have never seen another Mel Ott bat with provenance. His bats are the rarest of the 500 HR club with very few known the exist and this the only one I have ever seen with provenance.

Regards,

Scott
SFor9999@aol.com

Scott,

Sorry to hear that someone stole your bat. I will be keeping an eye out for it. Keep us posted and good luck in getting it returned.

Scott,

My heart seriously aches for what you are going through. I really hope they find the scumbags that walked off with it.

Just got back from the national. I really feel for you. The balls of people . May they find him and take a couple of otts out of his ass.

Why would u get something graded that u paid 40K for?

Sorry for your loss and i do hope u get it back

who is this John Taube joker.....nice care he shows for other peoples items.

Paul,
John Taube is a bat authenticator for PSA/DNA

How does that bat walk???
 

I can see a piece of memorabilia walking out of a mom & pop card store but the National? With all the security and cameras how does one circumvent that? The real question is why doesnt the "Big Guys" (PSA, JSA, Beckett, etc) have THEIR OWN security?? Spend the money and hire 1-2 off duty police officers to sit at your booth the entire show, day & night. Small investment that gives piece of mind to your customers. I feel for your loss as it is irreplaceable and getting the money back does little. If I was to bet, I have a feeling it shows up sometime soon. Put pressure in the right areas and you'll be surprised what happens.....

Good Luck and I hope you get it back soon!

Sorry to hear about your Huge loss! May it be recovered quickly and safely:)

Stolen Bat
 

I think its interesting. I took several autographed jerseys to a show in St. Louis where PSA was having onsight grading. I could not believe how fast
they took those jerseys into their tent area and out of sight. I agree with
the person that said they should have onsight security at their booth. They
see alot of really expensive & rare items, I'm sure, at the National. There
had to have been someone hanging around that spotted that bat. I know
when I took the jerseys there were a couple and one followed me asking
what the jerseys were. Not that easy to hide a bat that quick.

putting a bat on the table or alongside it, and taking your eye off of it for 10 seconds is like putting a stack of money there and taking your eye off of it.

you wouldnt think of taking your eye off money for even one second, but for something like a bat that is equivalent in value, people get more lax.

it's human nature, because they see so many bats all the time, if someone plunked down 50g's cash on the table, it wouldn't leave anyone's sight for one second.

i really hope they find the bat. there are thieves everywhere. to coolly walk off with something like that takes a lot of nerve.

+1 . . . then, when the perps are apprehended, a little Islamic justice: whack off their hands in a public square!

do the public have access to a 40K bat being graded?........I would doubt it......sounds like an inside job at PSA to me.

John Taube authenticates for PSA but is a private enterprise, so not sure he was even hooked up alongside PSA's booth.
Same w/ Steve Hart that would authenticate unopened packs for PSA.

I spent some time at PSA's booth on Thursday but didn't see Taube's booth next to them.
Not sure where John was in relation to PSA who was in the corporate section.

Scott, I hope you can recover your bat and get compensated for your aggravation, and that the thief gets jail time.
That would be a happy ending.

How did this play out? You put it on the table and walked away and someone took it? Or did someone take it from behind the guy's table? I have had a lot of items authenticated and graded at shows and the item has always been tagged and bagged right in front of me. Scary.

I was also thinking inside job, but maybe somebody that works for the convention center -- someone with access to the place after hours who might've been able to go through a few booths in the wee hours of the morning.

Good luck with this, Scott, and I hope your bat shows up soon.

they need to take a bait bat, a replica-say babe ruth, but a convincing replica, hollow it out , put in a transmitter lojack type system, put the bat out, wait until it gets swiped, then as soon as the transmitter moves, swoop in and grab the guy.

How diabolical! You should be in the spook biz. :D

+1 :rolleyes:

Scott
I certainly feel for you. I had a bat stolen off my table in Cleveland 3 years ago. My advice, take these posts down, get them out of google and yahoo searches and wait patiently. Everyone knows what happens and when the person who took it feels like the pressure is off, it will show up one way or another. Whether it's sold locally and then sent in to an auction or authentication, but just try to keep it out of the headlines and let it play out. Mine surfaced almost a year after it was stolen.

In regards to other posts, I can see where you think having off duty security is the answer, but with what these shows cost to do, know one would drop extra money to have security.

I do think the show promoters need to beef up security a lot. I saw security pass by our booth maybe 5 times this week. Plus the security people I saw, didn't look like the would be able to stop a thief if there was a situation.

Hope the bat turns up sooner than later.

Taube is a private business and had his table in the front of the room, which is about as far away from PSA's booth as you could possibly get. PSA takes submissions immediately into the back of its booth and keeps them under lock and key, but this didn't happen anywhere near their booth. I'd like to know when and how this happened (during the show, what distracted him, etc.). I hope the bat turns up, this would be horrible to go through.

Thanks for the advice and support and thanks to Matt for sharing his experience. To answer some questions that have been raised about how this happened, I had paid for the bat and arranged for Hunt Auctions to hand deliver it to John Taube at the National last Thursday (ironically, to avoid risk of loss via air courier). Hunt in fact delivered it to John and it was in John's possession when it was stolen later that afternoon. John had put it in a bat rack with other bats that were waiting to be authenticated. Apparently it was stolen while he was assisting other customers that afternoon. He noticed it was gone that evening when the show ended for the day and he went to retrieve it for safekeeping overnight. I am hoping that the person that took it comes to their senses and returns it.

Scott

wow, he put a stack of 50 thousand dollars cash in a non secure bat rack and went to help other people, came back and shockingly the cash is gone. that blows my mind.

This guy knew what he was doing, Ott isn't a household name, and to know that this bat is very valuable is not information known by many.

We're you at least able to hold the bat once?

Jake, I agree with you and hopefully this will help the police narrow the suspects. Though it is possible that it was a random act and the bat stolen out of the rack just happened to be far more valuable than the others, I doubt it. No, I did not even get a chance to hold the bat in my hands ... it went straight from Hunt Auctions to John Taube.

Obviously I wish that that the bat had been handled in a more secure manner. John is an intelligent guy and a good businessman so I am sure that he will learn from this experience and handle such things differently in the future.

Bat
 

Scott,
Sorry for the loss . We both know that these one of a kind items are so hard to replace! I do hope John does learn a lesson. That 48,300 lesson is going to leave a rather large bruise ! :eek: How anyone could leave an item like that in a bat rack without even a lock on it is beyond me!

Ordinarily I'd agree that Ott isn't a household name but this was the National. I'm sure 90 percent of the people in the room knew who Mel Ott was.

Scott, Damn!
So you didn't get to see it in person or touch it before it was nabbed, ouch!
Hopefully the lowlife will try to sell it and the authorities will nail him.

I was just saying that this was most likely premeditated, not just some random street mugger. You don't just go into a show and then realize, hey I want to steal that bat.

Insurance won't necessarily cover it if "reasonable care" was not taken to secure the bat from those who would wish to steal it.

Insurance companies often require that valuables are locked up and reasonable care taken to secure the items before they will issue insurance and cover the item from theft.

Shipping the item to Taube via USPS through certified mail, and if one wanted to really go the safe route, registered mail, is far, far more safe than to take it to a show where thousands of people are milling around, and distractions abound.

Harry Winston shipped the million dollar hope diamond to the Smithsonian this way. Boxed in a plain brown paper wrapper, certified mail through usps with ins.

yikes... best of luck!!

aL

Is it possible to ship something the size of a baseball bat vie registered mail? It was my impression that registered mail is regularly stored in small compartments and therefore it can be used only with smaller items.

Are you saying that you think someone was aware that this particular bat would be at the show, in the booth where it was stolen? That doesn't leave a lot of people who could be the thief.

Insurance coverage would only protect Taube. Either way, unless his customer agreed in writing that he (Taube) is not responsible for theft or loss of items, I would imagine that Taube is on the hook.

I agree. He received the bat and from the sounds of it failed to protect it once it entered his possession. Do you believe Taube's insurance company will cover it or will he personally be responsible? I do hope the bat show back up quickly and safe but how long would insurance wait before they pay out on the bat?(if they will:confused:)

Bat collectors have known for decades that Ott bats are scarce. I'd guess that anyone who is even slightly familiar with pre-war, game used bats would know that an Ott bat is tough and super desirable.

ROTFL at the insurance company covering it! I'm an attorney, and I often wonder why insurance companies even bothering having a claims department, since they basically never pay any claims. I haggle with these scumbags every single day over totally valid claims that they incessantly refuse to pay.

Their "policy" (pardon the pun) is merely to collect premiums, pay the CEOs tens of millions, drop a few hundred million more on advertising (geico anyone), then tell all the poor proletatians with the nerve to file a claim to go pound salt. It's like smashing your head into a brick wall trying to squeeze so much as a nickel out of them.

That said, I do feel for you, I'm a huge Mel Ott/NY Giants fan. I think Ott's early death kind of killed his legacy as a "household name," since he didn't live to see Mantle, Mays, Aaron etc. break his record and join the 500 HR club.

He also played for a forgotten team (i don't consider SF the "real" Giants), and he was overshadowed even in his prime by Dimaggio, Ruth, Williams etc).

Also he gets knocked for the "Polo Grounds" effect and that his HR were "cheap," which is NOT true.

beat the insurance co. scummers with a gamer... I hate insurance co's. Then they want to drop you....

I was talking about Taube's insurance, I am not sure Taube is covered by his own insurance if he did not take reasonable care. That's all I was saying.

A lot of ins. co's that deal with collectibles or high value objects have riders on the policies that state how you must store them. If not, it goes to a judge to determine if reasonable care was taken commensurate with the object in question. Since Taube could presumably have up to a 1 million dollar bat in his possession, I would think it would have to be locked up when not in his hands to be covered.

Any update on this situation/bat? Hope all turns out well!

Michael:

Thanks for your interest.

The bat has not yet surfaced. The police investigation continues.

Scott

Just seeing this thread now. Very sorry your bat was stolen, Scott.

I just wanted to jump in here and say that John Taube is one of the most honest people in this hobby, super knowledgable and a real gentleman.

Hope it surfaces.

Mel Ott Bat Returned
 

Dear Fellow Collectors:

First, thanks to all of you that contacted me or otherwise expressed your concern and empathy over the past year after my Mel Ott bat was stolen at last year's National.

I have some great news - the bat was recently returned! Needless to say, I am thrilled. Primarily to have the bat back, of course, but I am also thankful for the outpouring of support from fellow collectors and also that whomever was involved in taking it apparently had a change of heart and did the right thing in the end by returning it. I believe that the awareness generated by this forum and via other means may have played a role in its return.

It seems that these things rarely have a happy ending, but this one does. Thanks to you all (and particularly to Al for encouraging me to share the good news).

Scott

That's awesome Scott! I'm sure you are delighted and rightfully so! Congrats!!

Scott great news. Good luck.

Great news! Congrats on getting the bat back...the hobby for bats of that stature is so small I'm assuming this guy figured out that there was no way he was going to be able sell it.

That's amazing -- congratulations!


Greg

Thats great. Congrats on getting it back.
Matt

Awesome!

Ott is back!
 

Scott,
Im so glad everything worked out for you! It was getting hard for me to keep this secret when we talked a few months ago, but Im so glad you came back on the board to deliver that great news! Now dont let it out of your sight my friend!!;);) Best of luck always! Al

Thanks
 

Thanks, Al, and to others offering their congrats. Al, took awhile to tie up all the loose ends (insurance, FBI, J.T., etc). Got a nice message from Jim today, which reminded me that it was time to share the good news. Now the bat is never leaving my sight.

Scott

That's good to hear. I'm guessing it was in the same condition?

Ott Bat
 

That is great news!

Yes, Nate, it was returned in same condition.

ott is back
 

Scott,
Boy it must have been a great feeling to get back something that most of us thought would be gone for a long time. It probably was a good thing that the item was such a high end piece that it would have been almost impossible to send to an auction house without throwing up a red flag. I did end up talking to alot of the auction houses that I have dealt with just in the attempt to tell them what had occured. I figured it couldnt hurt. Im so glad my friend that it worked out so well in the end.

Any info you would care to share about where it has been and how it was returned?

Great news Scott!!!! Congrats!!

Dave:

It was returned anonymously. I am grateful that whomever took it did the right thing in the end by returning it.

Scott

I am elated.:)

May it never leave your sight again.

Many years ago I owned a sweet shop/gift shop.
One night I had a break in and the only thing stolen was my t-shirt imprinting machine.
It was never recovered but the police did tell me that it was probably stolen to order. There are criminal rings that get orders to steal a certain thing and then they go and do it.
Though this is not my side of the board I thought, when first reading this thread, that could have been what happened with the Ott bat.
Obviously that was not the case.
Great news that the owner got it back.
Sometimes the good guys win out in the end.

Like everyone else, I am very pleased at the return of the bat. It's hard to imagine the perverse pleasure someone would take in owning a hot bat. You couldn't show it to anyone, and if anyone who knew a little about bats were to find it in your possession, then you'd be in trouble. Maybe there's a type of person who enjoys gazing at the property that he's stolen... but it's good that whoever took the bat is not one of that type.

I'm glad that it wasn't damaged in the process as well. The thief, knowing that he had more on the plate then he could chew, didn't cut it up or burn it to say the hell with it.