Police solve Brady jersey caper
Suspect identified as international media member
Houston won uniform praise for its role hosting the Feb. 5 Super Bowl, except for what the city’s police chief called the event’s “only blemish”: the apparent theft of victorious quarterback Tom Brady’s jersey.
Six weeks later, that blot on Houston’s turn in the national spotlight appeared to be resolved Monday when police and NFL officials said the missing game jersey was recovered in Mexico — along with a second Brady jersey apparently from his 2015 Super Bowl victory in Arizona, and a Denver Broncos helmet possibly worn by linebacker Von Miller in the 2016 championship in California.
The memorabilia’s recovery — and discovery — came after a search involving Houston police, an unnamed informant, the FBI, the NFL, Mexican authorities and the Texas Rangers, who were assigned to the case by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.
“You came to the wrong state,” Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said about the suspect at a Monday news conference. “You don’t come to Texas and you don’t steal when the eyes of the world are upon our state.”
Acevedo praised the de-
partment’s investigators as nearly clairvoyant for finding a single item taken from the New England Patriots’ bustling locker room at NRG Stadium.
“Now I’m trying to get ’em to tell me the Lotto numbers for next week,” he joked at the news conference.
An NFL spokesman only identified the suspect as “a credentialed member of the international media.” But media reports circulated Fox Sports video footage showing a man in a suit and tie leaving the Patriots’ locker room with something tucked under his arm.
A few hours after noon, a Mexico City tabloid identified the suspect as an executive who resigned last week citing family concerns. The tabloid, La Prensa, said in a statement that it only learned Monday that ex-director Mauricio Ortega Camberos was suspected of the theft, which it called “lamentable and reprehensible.”
Mexico cooperates
If deemed authentic, each Brady jersey could fetch thousands of dollars at auction. After the sweaty 2017 jersey vanished from the Patriots’ locker room at NRG Stadium, the famed quarterback valued it at $500,000, according to a police report.
Houston Police Department investigators reviewed video footage and found an informant who helped pinpoint the 2017 jersey in Mexico, Acevedo said. Police asked the FBI to collaborate with Mexican law enforcement to retrieve it.
The jersey is in Boston with the FBI and the NFL, which are looking
to confirm its authenticity, the chief said — though he added that Houston police are “highly confident” in their find.
Authorities would not confirm whether there was a suspect in custody or whether U.S. officials would ask Mexico to extradite a suspect, but Acevedo did say federal charges are expected from the local U.S. Attorney’s Office.
But as of Monday afternoon there were no arrests or charges in the jersey case, said Jennifer Lowery, executive assistant U.S. attorney in Houston.
Lawyers said the most likely charge is transporting stolen goods
across state or national lines, an offense whose penalties increase for more valuable items up to a $5,000 fine and 10 years in prison.
Rare charge mulled
Prosecutors generally use the charge in cases of large-scale organized thefts, such as a ring that steals thousands of cellphones in one state and sells them in another, said Dan Cogdell, a veteran Houston defense attorney, who added that he never saw the charge used for a single item. If federal prosecutors do take the case, lawyers said Harris County prosecutors likely would let the federal case proceed without filing state charges such as theft.
“We are prepared to cooperate with our federal partners in this investigation,” said Dane Schiller, spokesman for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. “We don’t seek to duplicate their efforts.”
At the time of the theft, the Patriots’ locker room was supervised by the NFL’s security team, Acevedo said, suggesting they might want to “check their protocols” after the apparent thefts at each of the past three Super Bowls.
Sgt. Scott Waite, a spokesman for the police department in Glendale, Ariz., said that no one from the Patriots or the NFL had contacted the police after Brady’s jersey went missing two years ago because they “didn’t think it was foul play.”
A spokesman for the Broncos, Patrick Smyth, said the team has been in contact with the NFL’s security team to determine whether the helmet recovered in Mexico belonged to Miller.
The league might consider limiting journalists’ access to the locker room or teams, which traditionally has been seen as vital to get details and comments beyond what viewers see on television.
Widespread access
Jim Steeg, who ran the Super Bowl for the NFL for more than 25 years, said the thefts were the inevitable result of an expanding postgame celebration.
In years past, only cameramen and a handful of media were on the field after the end of the Super Bowl. Now hundreds of reporters, as well as family and friends of the players, are on the field and have access to the locker rooms.
Though Acevedo expressed pride in the Houston police investigation, he downplayed the theft’s severity and the amount of resources dedicated to the case in a city that saw more than 300 murders each of the last two years.
“It was a handful of investigators from the major offenders division. … I remember telling them, ‘Hey, don’t burn the midnight oil,’ ” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s a jersey, but we do have pride in our city.”