Jacob Paxton stole the cards from a Strongsville hotel he worked at and took them to a friend’s house in Cleveland. Two of the higher-priced cards remain missing.
CLEVELAND — A Brunswick man will serve time in prison for stealing more than $2 million worth of baseball cards from a Strongsville hotel this past spring.
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge William T. McGinty on Monday sentenced Jacob Paxton, 28, to a maximum of six years behind bars with the possibility of parole after four years. Paxton previously pleaded guilty to a single count of aggravated theft, while an accomplice admitted to charges of receiving stolen property.
The accomplice, 51-year-old Cleveland native Jason Bowling, avoided prison time and was instead sentenced to a year of probation. Paxton will also be under community control restrictions for five years after leaving prison and must pay over $89,000 restitution to the victims of his crimes.
Back in April, a FedEx delivery driver dropped off a package containing 54 old baseball cards at the Best Western Plus Hotel in Strongsville. The memorabilia had an estimated value of $2.1 million, and was to be displayed at the Strongsville Sports Collectors Convention taking place next door at Brunswick Auto Mart Arena.
Bowling, an employee at the Best Western, went through a number of packages delivered to the hotel and stole the one containing the cards. He took the ill-begotten items to Bowling’s Cleveland home, where police wound up executing a search warrant a little over a month after the theft took place.
Inside the house, authorities recovered 52 of the 54 stolen cards, which reportedly included the likenesses of legendary figures like Mickey Mantle and Roberto Clemente. However, prosecutors confirm two of the high-priced cards remain missing: a 1909 Ramly-branded Walter Johnson and a 1941 “Play Ball” brand Ted Williams. The restitution Paxton will pay equals the value of those cards.
“Few thefts rise to the level of the $2 million worth of goods stolen by Jacob Paxton. Even though he was the sole individual behind this theft, he conveniently claims not to know where the two missing cards are,” Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael C. O’Malley said in a statement following sentencing. “He will have the next four to six years in prison to work on his memory.”
Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of the missing cards is asked to immediately call the Strongsville Police Department at 440-580-3247 and reference report No. 2024-000693.
3News’ Lydia Esparra and Anna Meyer contributed to this report.