Story from February 2003

Last Tuesday I received a call from fellow Civil War dealer and friend, Perry Frohne, who lives in Wisconsin. It seems that Perry bought a document on Ebay for several hundred dollars, and the guy did not send it to Perry as expected. Upon checking the guy out, Perry noticed that he had several items for sale on Ebay that belonged to me. Thinking that I must know this guy, Perry called and asked me about him. I did not know the guy, and upon checking what he was selling I noticed that it was part of my active inventory. Perry and I talked and I told him the guy had stolen these things from the shop in Alton (the theft had gone unnoticed my me…..Duh.)

Perry immediately tracked down a phone number through PayPal and called. The number was for a shop in Belleville, Illinoisthat had put the documents on Ebay for this guy for a fee. Perry explained to the shop owner that he had paid for a document and had not yet received it. The owner assured Perry that he would have the owner of the document call him. The phone rang at Perry’s house within the hour and the "owner” explained that he had recently experienced a death in the family and that he would get the document right out. Perry told him that he had some impressive items on Ebay and he wondered if other items might be available. According to Perry, the guy said he had tons of items and proceeded to read directly from my labels. Perry told him that he was very interested in buying more Civil War items from him and that he would be traveling through the St. Louis area on Thursday and would like to look at these things. A meeting was set up for Thursday in Belleville at the storefront where the Ebay items were placed on the net. Perry also told him to go ahead and overnight mail the document to Wisconsin.

Perry called me and told me the sting was on. I left messages for my boss in Ohio, and told him I was taking Thursday and Friday off work. I called the police in both Bellevilleand Alton, after getting the run around and making several calls, a police report was made in Altonby Terry Vaughn, owner of the mall in Alton. (I’ll spare you the details of why I could not make the report.) I spoke a couple of times to the investigating officer in Altonand he asked me to stop by the station on Wednesday night.

I left work Wednesday evening and drove 280 miles to Alton. The officers on duty at the station were baffled and told me to call in the morning. In the meantime, Perry was driving down from Wisconsinto Alton and stopped in Springfield for the night.

Thursday morning came and I still did not know if the sting was going to go down with just Perry and I or if the police would be involved. I called the police officer that I had been working with and he told me to come to the station to see a detective as the case had been turned over to Detective Frankie. So, at 9:00 I went to see the detective, Perry meanwhile decided that he needed to see Abe Lincoln’s home prior to "kicking some criminal butt…I’m bringing my gat, you know!” (Please note: Perry had no idea what he was saying at this point.) Those of you that know my friend Perry know that he has less than zero tolerance for those who play games…especially those involving his money or mine, for that matter.

I drove to the station and filled in Det. Frankie. It took a bit, but he eventually got a grip on what had happened. I showed him receipts, scans from my computer, my inventory listing, etc. He said he would need to coordinate with Belleville PD. My cell phone rang, and Perry was about to go into Abe’s house and did not want to be disturbed. I told him I was talking with the detective. Det. Frankie sent me to the shop to inventory and determine what had been stolen. He asked to see Perry and me when Perry arrived.

At the shop I started my inventory. Several documents were missing and several photographs. These had been in binders which were usually locked up but had been left out (my fault). Images were a bit harder to determine what was gone on such short notice, but it looked like at least 8-10 images and a similar number of documents, maybe more. The total value was more than $2,000.

Perry arrived at the shop and we traded phone calls with Det. Frankie. During one call Perry told the detective that he did not need to come if he did not want to, as we were going to do the deal either way. Det. Frankie said he was still coordinating with the Belleville PD. Later he called again and asked us to come to the station at 2:00. Det. Frankie would be going to Belleville with us and we were to stop by the Belleville PD and pick up a detective there also.

With a couple of hours to kill, we shopped the antique district and made some nice buys, I might add. Perry called the bad guy (police lingo I picked up from Det. Frankie). Perry confirmed the 3:00 appointment and the bad guy ran on at the mouth about items and the multiple guns he also had for sale. He repeated the story about these items coming from his father’s estate. We went to lunch, spent a few minutes at the old homestead, and headed to the station. We arrived at the station wondering how we would make the 45-50 minute drive to Belleville in time to get the deal done.

Det. Frankie told us that a Belleville Sargent would be coming along. At 2:05 Det. Frankie and the Belleville Sargent pulled out of the station in their unmarked Maroon Crown Victoria. We followed behind as we weaved our way to the highway and took it up to 75 or 80 mph.

Arriving at Belleville, we circled the block and parked illegally at the direction of Det. Frankie. Inside we met two detectives from Belleville who had the bad guy’s rap sheet in hand. They proceeded to hand it to Perry (again, if you know Perry….never hand him the ball unless you want him to run with it). The guy had been arrested before on drug charges. I did not recognize him. We discussed how the deal should go down. The detectives wanted me to ID the items, otherwise they would have to get a search warrant to go into the building. They suggested I accompany Perry. Perry, rap sheet in hand, took over. "Guys, that will not work. He is expecting a guy from Wisconsin. Any additional people will raise suspicion. I’ll go in, do the deal, get all the items and bring them along with the bad guy out of the building, then you guys can grab him.” I stood there amazed as they agreed to do Perry’s plan. Perry, pushing his luck, asked if it was all right to tackle the guy if he started to run. The detectives asked him to let them take care of it.

At 3:10, we left the Bellevillestation and proceeded to the address given. The two Bellevilledetectives in plain clothes led the way in their gray unmarked car. Perry followed them in my Toyota, and I rode with the Altondetectives. We pulled up to the address and the Belleville detectives parked one block in front of the building, which was located in a run-down part of town. The Altonguys parked one block before the building. I was instructed to stay in the car until Perry brought out the bad guy. When they have him secured they will call me up to ID the items.

Perry walked into the store and apologized for being late. He was directed to the rear of the building where the bad guy was sitting. He told the guy about how neat Lincoln’s home was and then sat down to look at the items he brought. He opened a binder and in short order Perry knew that everything in the binder was mine. He also had a few cheap engravings that Perry did not think belonged to me, but decided that he would try to get it all out of the building. He asked the guy what he would take for everything. The answer was $5500. Perry went through the binder a second time and said, "OK….I left my cash in the car as I did not know who I was meeting here. Let’s go out and get it.” Perry picked up all of the items and started for the door, but not before the bad guy told him he had shipped the document to him that was owed, and he proceeded to give the mailing receipt to Perry.

Sitting in the back of the car, I was surprised at how fast Perry exited the building. Det. Frankie proclaimed, "There is the bad guy,” and we pulled up in front of the building. The Bellevilledetectives got there first and said to the guy, "You know why we’re here, Brian.” The bad guy did not respond. I was in the back of the car fumbling with my digital camera that I had in my coat. I thought some pics would be fun (I did not ask for permission). Unfortunately, I was blocked by a truck in front of the car and as I opened the rear door to take some pictures, I was called up to look at the document and thus lost all hope of snagging a picture.

Stuffing my camera back in my coat, I walked up to the car. Perry opened the binder and said, "Look at this. It’s all yours.” I was amazed. He had a ton of my things, many thousands of dollars worth, maybe 50-60 items. I proceeded to ask the bad guy what the heck was wrong with him. The bad guy rolled his eyes as Det. Frankie told me to be quiet and not mess this up. I complied as they cuffed bad guy Brian Myer. He sat in the back of the car in full view of Perry and I high-fiving each other. They hauled the bad guy away to the station.

Perry, flush with the excitement of the bust (his sting, his plan, his bust) pulled the postal receipt from his pocket and explained to the detective that this was also a federal mail fraud case. Unamused, Det. Frankie told him he knew that and took the receipt.

Perry and I drove back to Altondiscussing how we should send bad guy Brian Myer some soap on a rope as a parting gift. St. Clair County, Illinois, which is known for being way too liberal in letting crooks go. After a few days they let him go. The detectives tried to get the Feds interested but nothing transpired. He went to trial but ended up with little more than a slap on the wrist.

Email: medhurstmd@aol.com

Phone: 913-851-8462