A California couple’s life was left in disarray after thieves posing as housesitters stole $100,000 in items from their $1.1million home – including a Babe Ruth baseball, according to police.
Dave and Barbara Bauer traveled to Spain in April and left their dogs and house in the care of a man and a woman they found through a company called Trusted Housesitters.
The couple said they had previously used the service when they needed someone to watch their home in Mission Viejo in Orange County.
But they were horrified when they returned from their latest trip and found their things had been rearranged, broken and stolen.
China that belonged to Barbara’s great-grandmother was left broken in a bin, and dirty dishes and broken glass were found in the sink.
The Bauers also saw signs that the housesitters had used their cars while they were away.
But the worst realization came months later, in August, when the couple realized they were missing an autographed and authenticated Babe Ruth baseball.
Dave had bought the item in 1987 and kept it in a lock box. The ball and a number of baseball cards had a value of around $100,000, Dave told The Mercury News.
‘It (the lock box) was hidden and even if you did a cursory search, you wouldn’t have found it,’ Dave Bauer said.
‘The key was in a different location and they really had to dig in to find that.’
The Bauers called police and detectives identified the suspects within a day.
Months later, police returned the ball and cards to the Bauers after they arrested the suspects, Luis Francisco Antepara, 43, and Ashley Elizabeth Luhring, 29, in late September.
Police said they believe the suspects burglarized multiple other homes in the area while posing as housesitters.
The suspects had used the names of previous homeowners to create profiles on the homesitting website.
Police said that while they were surveilling the suspects, the pair were housesitting and allegedly used a credit card stolen from a previous customer’s home to order food.
The alleged thieves allegedly stole a total of $200,000 in items, including an Amazing Spiderman original edition comic valued at about $15,000, according to police.
Antepara and Luhring pleaded not guilty to four counts of first-degree burglary and two counts of unauthorized use of personal identifying information.
The Daily Mail reached out to Trusted Housesitters for comment on this story.