Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2017 4:29 pm Post subject: Kobe Bryant memorabilia stolen from ex-NBA star's alma mater
People sure are obsessed with his stuff I admit I was going to make a joke about his parents stealing it but I doubt they would do it in this instance.
Kobe Bryant memorabilia stolen from ex-NBA star’s alma mater
ARDMORE, Pa. (AP) — Authorities say memorabilia from Kobe Bryant’s high school career have been stolen from a display case at the former NBA star’s school near Philadelphia.
Philly.com reports (http://bit.ly/2lgF8nV ) the theft from “Kobe’s Shrine” outside the Bryant Gymnasium at Lower Merion High School was discovered by school officials on Sunday evening.
The thief busted a lock on the display case and took Bryant’s framed high school jersey, several pairs of signed Nike sneakers and the 1996 state championship trophy and net.
School officials say the items have little monetary value. The jersey is a replica of the one worn by the Los Angeles Lakers legend as a student.
Lower Merion police are reviewing surveillance video to try to solve the crime.
Joined: 24 Dec 2007 Posts: 35750 Location: Santa Clarita, CA (Hell) ->>>>>Ithaca, NY -≥≥≥≥≥Berkeley, CA
Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2017 5:26 pm Post subject: Re: Kobe Bryant memorabilia stolen from ex-NBA star's alma mater
Basketball Fan wrote:
People sure are obsessed with his stuff I admit I was going to make a joke about his parents stealing it but I doubt they would do it in this instance.
Kobe Bryant memorabilia stolen from ex-NBA star’s alma mater
ARDMORE, Pa. (AP) — Authorities say memorabilia from Kobe Bryant’s high school career have been stolen from a display case at the former NBA star’s school near Philadelphia.
Philly.com reports (http://bit.ly/2lgF8nV ) the theft from “Kobe’s Shrine” outside the Bryant Gymnasium at Lower Merion High School was discovered by school officials on Sunday evening.
The thief busted a lock on the display case and took Bryant’s framed high school jersey, several pairs of signed Nike sneakers and the 1996 state championship trophy and net.
School officials say the items have little monetary value. The jersey is a replica of the one worn by the Los Angeles Lakers legend as a student.
Lower Merion police are reviewing surveillance video to try to solve the crime.
Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2017 7:31 am Post subject: Re: Kobe Bryant memorabilia stolen from ex-NBA star's alma mater
CandyCanes wrote:
Basketball Fan wrote:
People sure are obsessed with his stuff I admit I was going to make a joke about his parents stealing it but I doubt they would do it in this instance.
Kobe Bryant memorabilia stolen from ex-NBA star’s alma mater
ARDMORE, Pa. (AP) — Authorities say memorabilia from Kobe Bryant’s high school career have been stolen from a display case at the former NBA star’s school near Philadelphia.
Philly.com reports (http://bit.ly/2lgF8nV ) the theft from “Kobe’s Shrine” outside the Bryant Gymnasium at Lower Merion High School was discovered by school officials on Sunday evening.
The thief busted a lock on the display case and took Bryant’s framed high school jersey, several pairs of signed Nike sneakers and the 1996 state championship trophy and net.
School officials say the items have little monetary value. The jersey is a replica of the one worn by the Los Angeles Lakers legend as a student.
Lower Merion police are reviewing surveillance video to try to solve the crime.
What?
If you want to resell sports memorabilia you need to have some type of authenticity Of how it was obtained. If you dont have that the items are essentially worthless. And pawn shops will not accept any stolen items as it is against the law.
That's why crooks would rather steal jeweler as gold and silver can be melted down and provide value. As well as stealing diamonds.
Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2017 11:32 pm Post subject: Re: Kobe Bryant memorabilia stolen from ex-NBA star's alma mater
999 wrote:
CandyCanes wrote:
Basketball Fan wrote:
People sure are obsessed with his stuff I admit I was going to make a joke about his parents stealing it but I doubt they would do it in this instance.
Kobe Bryant memorabilia stolen from ex-NBA star’s alma mater
ARDMORE, Pa. (AP) — Authorities say memorabilia from Kobe Bryant’s high school career have been stolen from a display case at the former NBA star’s school near Philadelphia.
Philly.com reports (http://bit.ly/2lgF8nV ) the theft from “Kobe’s Shrine” outside the Bryant Gymnasium at Lower Merion High School was discovered by school officials on Sunday evening.
The thief busted a lock on the display case and took Bryant’s framed high school jersey, several pairs of signed Nike sneakers and the 1996 state championship trophy and net.
School officials say the items have little monetary value. The jersey is a replica of the one worn by the Los Angeles Lakers legend as a student.
Lower Merion police are reviewing surveillance video to try to solve the crime.
What?
If you want to resell sports memorabilia you need to have some type of authenticity Of how it was obtained. If you dont have that the items are essentially worthless. And pawn shops will not accept any stolen items as it is against the law.
That's why crooks would rather steal jeweler as gold and silver can be melted down and provide value. As well as stealing diamonds.
Unless whoever buys it is perfectly aware of how it was obtained (short of ordering it to be obtained in that way). Wouldn't put it past some Cali criminals with money to do something like this.
More than two years after it was stolen from a display case at Lower Merion High School and following a trip halfway around the world and back, Kobe Bryant's high school uniform has been returned.
The jersey was acquired by Liu Zhe, a 28-year-old self-proclaimed Kobe fanatic from Harbin, China, in October 2018 after it resurfaced some 6,300 miles from where it was last seen in Ardmore, Pennsylvania. Liu said he purchased it to add to the Kobe collection that he keeps in his home in the capital city of Heilongjiang province.
Liu, who proudly displays his Bryant memorabilia on his Instagram account, said he was contacted by an online seller looking to gauge Liu's interest in the item. Liu told ESPN he paid approximately $2,000 for it, happy to add Bryant's high school No. 33 to his collection full of Los Angeles Lakers uniforms -- both the No. 8 and No. 24 versions -- as well as Bryant's No. 10 USA Basketball jersey.
Kobe Bryant's high school jersey No. 33 was hoisted to the rafters of the Lower Merion High School gym and retired in 2002. AP Photo/Douglas M. Bovitt
However, after having the jersey in his possession, Liu said he realized the striking resemblance of his new memento to the framed Bryant jersey that was stolen back in 2017 along with Lower Merion's 1996 PIAA Boys' Basketball 4A State Championship trophy, Bryant's Parade All-American plaque, as well as several game programs and five pairs of Bryant's signature Nike sneakers done up in the Aces' maroon and white color scheme.
Liu had intended to return the uniform to Bryant in person when the former Lakers star visits Shenzhen, China, on Saturday to announce the draw for the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup.
However, after connecting with a representative for Lower Merion's basketball team through its Instagram account, Liu agreed to mail the uniform back to the school.
He asked for no compensation in return -- other than hoping that Bryant would be alerted that the jersey had been recovered. Adding to the international intrigue of the jersey's jaunt, aiding the translation between Liu and the basketball program was Saiyuan Bian, a professional basketball player in China. Lower Merion head coach Gregg Downer befriended Bian in 2014 when Bian was in the U.S. serving as a translator for the Shanxi Brave Dragons during the Chinese team's preseason training camp held in the Philadelphia area.
"We reached out to Bian and said, 'I think that this guy may be demanding a meeting with Kobe, but maybe it's getting lost in translation,'" Aces assistant coach Doug Young, who was a teammate of Bryant at Lower Merion, told ESPN. "So Bian, our friend from China, became kind of the intermediary in all of this."
Liu, who has already met Bryant a handful of times when the five-time champion made promotional appearances in both China and the United States, said he was motivated to right the wrong because of a note Bryant wrote to him. Liu was named camper of the day at a Bryant-sponsored camp in Los Angeles in 2018. Liu posed with Bryant for a photograph when he received the camp recognition and Bryant autographed the photo of the two of them, adding a personal inscription.
"He signed, 'Dream big! Live epic! Mamba mentality,'" Liu told ESPN. "What I did was my 'mamba mentality.'"
Courtesy Liu Zhe
The school received the jersey in the mail last week and handed it over to the Lower Merion Police Department. On Tuesday, straight out of an episode of "Pawn Stars," Detective Ed Sarama consulted an area memorabilia shop to verify that the signature on the uniform was authentic. In the opinion of the New Jersey-based shop, it was.
The jersey was not actually worn by Bryant when he scored 2,883 points over his four-year standout stint for Lower Merion from 1992 to '96. The school had 10 replica jerseys made up when the school retired his No. 33 early on in Bryant's career with the Lakers. Bryant signed the 10 jerseys and they were distributed to team boosters and school officials, with one being kept for display purposes.
The fact that the jersey recovered by Liu was manufactured by DeLong only added to Lower Merion officials' belief in its authenticity. DeLong stopped producing basketball uniforms in 2008, according to a customer service representative reached by phone by ESPN this week, and the sporting goods company now focuses its business on letterman jackets and team gear.
The Lower Merion Police Department's investigation is ongoing in hopes of recovering the rest of the stolen items taken on Super Bowl Sunday in February 2017 and bringing the two unidentified thieves caught on security video that night to justice. The LMPD said it has received additional information from Liu about the online seller he purchased the jersey from.
"We'd love to know what happened to the other items too but just the fact that someone, when they realized what they had, was willing to send it back and do the right thing was a very welcome turn of events," Young said. "We're very excited to have the jersey back in its appropriate place."
Lower Merion plays perennial Philadelphia power Roman Catholic in the PIAA 6A Boys' basketball state playoffs on Wednesday, and Young hopes Bryant's jersey's surprise return was a good omen.
"As coaches, we'd love to think that these kinds of things bring good karma and are harbingers of success," he said.
Soon the jersey can once again be appreciated by fans like Liu who make the trek to Lower Merion to see where Bryant's legacy took root.
"I'm sure the Kobe tourists who come to Lower Merion High School to check out the Kobe Bryant Gymnasium and the trophy case will enjoy seeing the jersey again," Young said. "For our school community, it's certainly bigger than that -- we appreciate that someone was generous and willing enough to give us back a little piece of our history."
Liu says all he wants is for Bryant to know who hooked him up with an assist.
"I hope Kobe can know the news before he comes to China," Liu said.
Kobe Bryant made sure a good deed did not go unnoticed.
While on a recent trip to China to promote the draw for the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup, one of Bryant's associates reached out to Liu Zhe, the 28-year-old superfan who recovered Bryant's stolen Lower Merion High School jersey and returned it to the school. Bryant wanted to show his gratitude for Liu's generosity with a face-to-face meeting before the former Los Angeles Lakers star returned to the United States.
A Kobe Bryant jersey stolen from his high school in Pennsylvania has been returned by a man in China.
Liu, a native of Harbin, China, purchased the jersey from an online seller for approximately $2,000 in October 2018, nearly two years after it was stolen from a display case at Bryant's high school in February 2017.
After realizing the No. 33 uniform matched the one that was missing, Liu connected with a representative for Lower Merion's basketball team through its Instagram account and agreed to mail the uniform back to the school in Ardmore, Pennsylvania. He asked for nothing in return, other than hoping that Bryant would hear the story about how the jersey was recovered.
Bryant met with Liu last weekend following a launch event in Shenzhen, China, for Bryant's new children's book, "The Wizenard Series: Training Camp." Liu already had met Bryant a handful of times when the five-time champion had made promotional appearances in both China and the United States, but this time around was extra special.
"I asked Kobe, 'Do you remember me?'" Liu told ESPN. "He told me, 'Yes, thank you for returning the jersey. You did a great thing.'"
Liu used the opportunity to give Bryant a letter he wrote for him, detailing what the two-time NBA Finals MVP means to him.
"Thank you, Kobe," the letter concluded. "Thank you for 20 years company. Mamba never out!"
Kobe Bryant met and thanked the superfan from China who bought and then returned his stolen high school jersey. Molly Carter, Kobe Inc.
Bryant autographed a poster-size photo of him and Liu, taken when Liu was a participant at Bryant's basketball camp in Los Angeles in 2018. He included the inscription, "Do epic things!"
The Lower Merion Police Department's investigation into the 2017 theft is ongoing in hopes of recovering the rest of the stolen items taken from the school -- including the 1996 PIAA Boys' Basketball 4A State Championship trophy and five pairs of Bryant's signature Nike sneakers -- and bringing the two unidentified thieves caught on security video that night to justice.
The LMPD said it has received additional information from Liu about the online seller that he purchased the jersey from.
"The Lower Merion School District is appreciative that the fan in China did the right thing and returned the Kobe Bryant jersey to Lower Merion High School," the school district said in a statement. "We remain hopeful that the other stolen items will be returned as well and appreciate the continued work of the Lower Merion Township police to recover the items."
This was inevitable. The school put that stuff behind what was likely a simple pane of glass and a chincy exterior lock that they could've popped off with a crowbar. The world is full of pukes just looking for loot to score a come-up. The stuff they honored and prized, they left almost completely unprotected. If it weren't for D-heads like them, there wouldn't be any thievery in this world! (Sgt. Hartman) They're probably thinking if only they had used Plexiglas and a stronger IN-terior locking mech!! Oh, well. There have been Nobel gold medals stolen from public displays. Brinks trucks have been breached. S happens. _________________ GOAT MAGIC REEL SEDALE TRIBUTE EDDIE DONX!
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum