{"id":2547,"date":"2025-10-13T23:24:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T23:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/2547\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T23:24:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T23:24:12","slug":"california-couples-life-left-in-disarray-after-phony-housesitters-stole-100k-worth-of-items","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/2547\/","title":{"rendered":"California couple’s life left in disarray after phony housesitters stole $100k worth of items"},"content":{"rendered":"

A California<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

Dave and Barbara Bauer traveled to Spain<\/a> in April and left their dogs and house in the care of a man and a woman they found through a company called\u00a0Trusted Housesitters.<\/p>\n

The couple said they had previously used the service when they needed someone to watch their home in Mission Viejo in Orange County.<\/p>\n

But they were horrified when they returned from their latest trip and found their things had been rearranged, broken and stolen.<\/p>\n

China<\/a> that belonged to Barbara’s great-grandmother was left broken in a bin, and dirty dishes and broken glass were found in the sink.<\/p>\n

The Bauers also saw signs that the housesitters had used their cars while they were away. <\/p>\n

\"https:\/\/img.particlenews.com\/image.php?url=3FuRuK_15ceowzm00\"The ball and a number of baseball cards stolen had a value of around $100,000\"https:\/\/img.particlenews.com\/image.php?url=0FbbIW_15ceowzm00\"Luis Francisco Antepara, 43,\"https:\/\/img.particlenews.com\/image.php?url=4HUYM1_15ceowzm00\"Ashley Elizabeth Luhring, 29<\/p>\n

But the worst realization came months later, in August, when the couple realized they were missing an autographed and authenticated Babe Ruth baseball. <\/p>\n

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\u00a0$100,000, Dave told The Mercury News<\/a>. <\/p>\n

‘It (the lock box) was hidden and even if you did a cursory search, you wouldn\u2019t have found it,’ Dave Bauer said. <\/p>\n

‘The key was in a different location and they really had to dig in to find that.’<\/p>\n

The Bauers called police and detectives identified the suspects within a day.<\/p>\n

Months later, police returned the ball and cards to the Bauers after they arrested the suspects,\u00a0Luis Francisco Antepara, 43, and Ashley Elizabeth Luhring, 29, in late September.<\/p>\n

Police said they believe the suspects burglarized multiple other homes in the area while posing as housesitters.<\/p>\n

The suspects had used the names of previous homeowners to create profiles on the homesitting website. <\/p>\n

\"https:\/\/img.particlenews.com\/image.php?url=2oZ00Y_15ceowzm00\"Luhring, one of the suspects, is pictured, Police said she used an alias to find homes to housesit\"https:\/\/img.particlenews.com\/image.php?url=1xKCW8_15ceowzm00\"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\"https:\/\/img.particlenews.com\/image.php?url=0oF7zu_15ceowzm00\"The alleged thieves allegedly stole a total of $200,000 in items, including an Amazing Spiderman original edition comic valued at about $15,000<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

The alleged thieves allegedly stole a total of $200,000 in items, including an Amazing Spiderman original edition comic valued at about\u00a0$15,000, according to police.<\/p>\n

Antepara and Luhring pleaded not guilty to four counts of first-degree burglary and two counts of unauthorized use of personal identifying information.<\/p>\n

The Daily Mail reached out to Trusted Housesitters for comment on this story. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A California couple’s life was left in disarray after thieves posing as housesitters stole $100,000 in items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[26,7,3406,9,8,24,23,25],"class_list":["post-2547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-breaking-news","tag-california","tag-california-couples-life-left-in-disarray-after-phony-housesitters-stole-100k-worth-of-items","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-daily-mail","tag-local-news","tag-newsbreak"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}