PA man arrested for memorabilia fraud

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Posted By: David

I don't post much, but I thought I'd share in my excitement that Roger Hooper of Mechanicsburg, PA was arrested a couple weeks ago for fraud involving sports memorabilia.

As with most of these cases, it's a long story, but Hooper cheated another gentleman and myself for nearly $70,000. After over 2 years of going after him he was arrested at his home.

Hooper sold just about any type of bogus item you can think of via his auction house: autographs, resealed wax, coins, vintage militaria, and anything else he thought he could make a buck from.

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Posted By: Bill

Though I'm sorry to hear that you, along with others, had to be involved in the mess to begin with. At least he's nailed now though. Are you going to be able to recoup any losses? Is there a link to a news story at all?

Change your socks, drink water, and drive on.

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Posted By: Matt

David - well done! The streets of the hobby are getting cleaner.

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Posted By: David

I'm disappointed that I couldn't find any news stories online. There was a press release from the District Attorney's office, but since I live about 3 hours away I don't have access to the local printed papers and I didn't see anything online.

I'm not sure what I can and can't say about the case, but the detective handling everything told me I could let anyone in the hobby know about Hooper's activities since his arrest is a matter of public record now.

He's been doing this for years. I'd be shocked if people from his area aren't familiar with him, as his advertised auctions contained a lot of expensive, albeit fake, stuff.

I just wanted to get the word out on this guy. Hopefully he can't rip off anyone in the future.

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Posted By: Bill

On any articles. I'm just glad another moron is finished. And for the record, always play it safe and don't say anything if unsure.

Change your socks, drink water, and drive on.

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Posted By: Ted Sherman

Any idea if this was PAoutdoorsman on ebay? Anyone remember him?

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Posted By: Bruce Dorskind

We were thrilled to read about the capture of the Harrisburg man.

We hope he receives at least 15 years to life and suffers brtual
treatment when in prison.

Too bad the death penalty no longer is on the books in Pennsylvania.




Bruce Dorskind
America's Toughest Want List

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Posted By: Gary Weatherhead

Hopefully there will be some restitution for those he duped.

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

Bruce is always good for a laugh even when he's not kidding.

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Posted By: Richard S. Simon

I just Googled this sleaze bucket and found his auction site but no news of his arrest. I would guess that a news story of the arrest might be on Google either later today or tomorrow.
==

I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent.
Unknown author
--
We made a promise. We swore we'd always remember.
No retreat baby, no surrender.
The Boss

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Posted By: David

Like I say, the arrest actually happened a couple weeks ago, so if there hasn't been an online article yet, I doubt it's going to happen. I guess someone with better Google skills than me might be able to find something, but I can't.

The only reason I waited until today to say something is the detective called me and gave me the date for his arraignment.

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Posted By: Bob Lemke

A couple of years before I left SCD, we did an in-depth investigation of Hooper and his eBay/local auctions scams and we published a 2-3 article series on his frauds. We got a few nibbles from local law enforcement, but it seems that although the wheels of justice grind slowly, they do grind exceedingly fine.

I'll bet Sol Cramer is looking over his shoulder now!

If I recall correctly, he (Hooper) WAS Paoutdoorsman.

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Posted By: David

I read some online articles when this first happened to me that were from SCD that talked about a scam artist from Pennsylvania, but the name wasn't Hooper. Do you know how I could locate the articles you mentioned?

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Posted By: Richard S. Simon

paoutdoorsman is still on ebay and is currently selling Honda accessories.
==

I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent.
Unknown author
--
We made a promise. We swore we'd always remember.
No retreat baby, no surrender.
The Boss

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Posted By: Sean

awesome! now can we please get carl meyer?

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Posted By: Roland

The fact that Hopper is a sleaze is no surprise to any collector in the Harrisburg area, which is where I live. All the collectors here knew about him and avoided anything he sold like the plague. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy ( as they say ).

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Posted By: Roland

David; Could you let me know anything you know about his arrest and arraignment ? It wasn't in the local papers here ( Harrisburg, which includes Mechanicsburg ). There are a whole handful of collecting buddies who will get a big kick out of this.
I know him personally and unfortunately I think you'll have little or no chance getting any money back. They don't come any shadier than him.
My email if you want is: rocuan@aol.com

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Posted By: Steve

paoutdoorsman is still on ebay and is currently selling Honda accessories.






The paoutdoorsman that Ted was thinking about was named paoutdoorsman2004 and has been NARU
for quite some time.

I have no idea if the two are the same person or if the person arrested is as well.


Steve

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Posted By: David

The arraignment is on July 10th in New Cumberland.

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Posted By: scott altland

i live in mechanicsburg,turning back the clock 15 years ,he had a shop nearby with alot of material including older wax.back in the day when the basketball card craze hit,a couple of friends bought a dozen boxes of Hoops,seeking the david robinson rookie...no robinsons.i bought packs of 1981 and 1986 topps hockey ..no gretzky or lemiuex.pack upon pack was lacking stars.talking to a dealer about this ,he said that rumor was that he resealed/searched packs.the problem was he had material no one at the time had so people including myself took along time to believe.when ebay became popular obviously he moved on to better hunting grounds.
good to hear he got what he deserves.
thanks,
scott altland

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Posted By: Steve

Time to get "bad".

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Posted By: Michael

I've purchased stuff at his auctions in Mechanicsburg. One time I found over $1300 worth of fake stuff, I called him and told him I wanted my money back and I was lucky enough to have it refunded. I've heard horror stories of how two different people purchased CASES of 1984 Topps football and found not one Elway or Marino rookie. I've been told by others that he has sold them fake autographs. I did however purchase some vintage items 60-70's baseball that were a good price and authentic. I'm very sorry about the person who lost 70,000. If you can Email me I'd like to attend the arraignment if you are going. He had an auction last weekend, I don't know if he went through with it or not.

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Posted By: David

I'll definitely be at the arraignment. It's on July 10th at 2PM in New Cumberland. 400 Bridge Street is the address of the courthouse and Judge Clement is presiding.

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Posted By: Roland

Clement is a Justice of the Peace. I will be shocked to my shoes if he doesn't have Bill Costopolous representing him. He is the biggest defense lawyer in the area. If you got the money, he'll be there. So will I.

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Posted By: Anonymous

David, What did you get from Hooper that was fake?

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Posted By: David

Mostly resealed wax, but also some fake autographs and counterfeit cards.

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Posted By: David

I wanted to bump this up. If anyone is interested the pre-trial hearing is this Thursday, July 10th at 2pm in New Cumberland, PA, 400 Bridge Street.

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Posted By: Michael

David,
I won't be able to make it tomorrow. The District Attorney's office called me yesterday and asked me some questions and I gave them more info. Would you mind shooting me an Email after the hearing?
Best of luck!

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Posted By: David

The detective called me yesterday evening and told me that Hooper's attorney filed for a continuance. He's going to let me know the new date for the preliminary hearing ASAP.

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Posted By: David

In case anyone is interested:

http://www.pennlive.com/news/patriotnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1216774523250690.xml&coll=1&thispage=1

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Posted By: leon

Hooper says he doesn't understand why he is being targeted and he did nothing wrong. I guess that will be up to the courts and/or a jury to decide. The report says he got taken away in handcuffs......

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Posted By: Marty Ogelvie

Thanks for the article link.  I enjoyed the read.

Moral of this story; Never let anyone who has been BANNED from eBay use your eBay id to continue selling on eBay.. duh!

edited for clarity.. probably still not clear.

martyOgelvie
New York Yankee cards

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Posted By: Steve Murray

Here's a scammer that's going to the clink:

"Aurora man sentenced to 30 months for wire, mail fraud
Judge orders him to pay restitution for accepting payments for equipment never delivered
Tribune staff report
11:12 PM CDT, July 22, 2008
An Aurora man, convicted in May of nine counts of wire and mail fraud involving a scheme to sell electronics over the Internet without providing the items, was sentenced Tuesday to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay $47,540 to seven people.

DuPage County Assistant State's Atty. Ken Tatarelis told Judge Robert Anderson that Charles Threat, 48, of the 2700 block of Village Green Drive, used an Internet electronics trading site in 2005 and 2006 to contact "victims across the country, from East Coast to West Coast. He chose his victims assuming they would never travel here to testify against him, but seven of them did."

Tatarelis said Threat never had any items for sale, just photos of CD players and other audio equipment that he said would be delivered after payments were made.

Threat contended at trial that the dealers were responsible for the problems. He asked Anderson to vacate it.

"You have had a pattern of fooling people in life, and this was a well-thought-out scheme," Anderson said."

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Posted By: Bob

And last year a slimeball from Northwest Arkansas/Southeast Missouri got 10 years in the pen for ebay fraudulent selling. Not quite the 15 to life that the Bruces wanted but close

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Posted By: anthony

i'm not a lawyer or anything but doesnt the state have to show that Hooper "knew" he was selling fakes? In California (and probably most state) if you have a reasonable cause to believe the item you received was stolen or fake, then you are pretty much guilty of it.

does the state have that info other than a few people saying "hey, this is fake". any emails saying "i know its fake but what are you gonna do 'bout it, punk!?"...that would be a damaging piece of evidence...

just wondering...i like to see bad guys go to jail

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Posted By: Michael

Anthony, I bought some older wax packs at an auction from Hooper. Before purchasing myself and a couple other people with knowledge closely examined some of them and found no signs of any tampering. Hooper said they were from a card shop that had closed down in Hershey and I remembered the shop, and about the NICEST guy there is. I then sold some to an Ebayer and he insisted they were tampered with. We had a big dispute. It appears that some were legit and some were actually tampered with. If I ever buy any wax, I'll have to look at every pack.
The DA office called me a few weeks back and the person told me what Hooper has been accused of was intermingling good items and bad items. The packs had likely some good packs and some resealed packs. I know I purchased a number of things and when I examined them closer at home it was obvious that they were fake. I called Hooper the next day and he refunded me $1200.
Other buyers at the auction told me that he had resold similar items that were returned to him as fraudulent at other auctions. That is where I think he'll get in the most trouble. He can say he did not know the items were fraudulent, but reselling things he has been told were fraudulent may be his downfall.

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Posted By: Bob

Anthony, there is a charge called "Theft by Receiving" in which a person is guilty of the felony charge if he either possesses stolen merchandise or possesses it and "should have known" it was stolen. This gives all criminal lawyers headaches as the issue is what is reasonable as far as knowledge goes. This isn't quite the answer to your question but if Tom's Card Shop buys a 1952 Mantle for $250 in nice condition and then John Law strolls in to the shop and spies it in the case and recognizes it as the card that was stolen from Ben Baseballcardcollector, Tom could be in serious deep trouble, even if Tom had no knowledge of the theft. Cases like these surface all the time. I haven't personally seen a baseball card involved around here but in this State, that "should have known" is a jury issue and we all know that going before a jury is a crapshoot. I would think Mr. Tom would be held to a higher standard of knowledge based on his holding himself out as a dealer of sports memorabilia then Sid Streetwalker who buys the card thinking he is just getting a good deal. Again, not exactly an answer to what you asked but another thing to think about in the world of card fraud. In this scenario if Tom gives the cops the card and doesn't ask for anything in return (i.e. out the $250) and assists the cop in trying to determine the identity of the perp, he would probably be ok but it is a slippery slope in some jurisdictions.

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Posted By: Roland

Yesterdays Harrisburg Patriot News has a two page spread regarding Hoopers arrest, with pictures.I don't know how to put the article ( quite large ) on this site. So, if anyone wants to do it or knows how, I will mail the article to whoever wants to do it.
Roland rocuan@aol.com

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Posted By: leon

If you want send me what you have pertaining to the article and arrest please do......and I will see if I can post it for you....regards

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Posted By: jeffv96masters

Here it is :


http://www.pennlive.com/news/patriotnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1216774523250690.xml&coll=1>]


*** EDIT: Also-- I am in contact with Matt Miller, the reporter in this case. I'll let you know how next months court hearing goes.

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Posted By: David

"Here it is :


http://www.pennlive.com/news/patriotnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1216774523250690.xml&coll=1>]


*** EDIT: Also-- I am in contact with Matt Miller, the reporter in this case. I'll let you know how next months court hearing goes."

Are my updates lacking?

My name is only the first two words in the linked article....

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Posted By: David

The preliminary hearing went well and we're off to trial.

http://www.pennlive.com/news/patriotnews/index.ssf?/base/news/122170201499431.xml&coll=1&thispage=1

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Posted By: leon

Nice work....please continue to keep us informed.....best regards

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Posted By: Bob

His lawyer's name is "Corky?" Wow, Corky Goldstein sounds like a character from the Simpson's.

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Posted By: Roland

David; I live in Camp Hill, next door to Mechanicsburg. I've known of Hooper for a long time. All the collectors in this area either know or know of him. There was a hearing held at the District JP's office. The case has now benn sent to regular court. Hooper says that fake material is the way things are in this industry. We'll see what the jury says. I have both the newspaper articles about his case, July and today. I don't kow how to post them on here but will be glad to send them to you or anybody else who wants. Send your email address to rocuan@aol.con and I'll send them.
Roland

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Posted By: David

Roland,

Thank you for the information. I testified at the preliminary hearing on Wednesday. His arraignment is in November. I'm not sure what the legal steps are from that point.

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Posted By: Rich

http://www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/latest/sports-memorabilia-dealer-will-stand-trial.html

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Posted By: davidcyclebeck

A key legal point to remember for future scammer disputes and discussions is that the prosecuting lawyer in this case specifically classified this sale of incorrectly described memorabilia without refund as "theft." A second point is that the infamous "sold as is" disclaimer didn't deter the theft classification or prosecution.

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Posted By: Anonymous

I live in Mechanicsburg, and have talked to the police department about this incident. Since several things were in the US mail, it's also possible that federal charges will be brought against him.

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Posted By: Dan Koteles

maybe he will get it with the Ripken bat to boot !