Mel Ott Bat Stolen at National

[sforaker]

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

[travrosty]

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.

[Jlighter]

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?

[sforaker]

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.

[batsballsbases]

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 ! How anyone could leave an item like that in a bat rack without even a lock on it is beyond me!

[packs]

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.

[Jay Wolt]

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.

[Jlighter]

Originally Posted by packs

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.

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.