Signed Michael Jackson shoes recovered after theft from Center City hotel
A pair of autographed Michael Jackson shoes that were reported stolen from an auction at the Loews Hotel in Center City early Sunday morning, have been returned to their owner.
Signed Michael Jackson shoes recovered after theft from Center City hotel
This "Thriller" was as easy as 1, 2, 3, oh simple as do re mi to solve.
A pair of autographed Michael Jackson shoes that were reported stolen from an auction at the Loews Hotel in Center City early Sunday morning have been returned to their owner.
Martino Cartier, a 37-year-old salon owner from Blackwood, NJ, said he brought the shoes and a jacket belonging to Jackson to be auctioned off at the Hair O' the Dog gala at the hotel Saturday night. The proceeds from the auction were to support his charity, Friends Are By Your Side, an organization that provides wigs to cancer patients and those suffering from hair loss.
Cartier said when he arrived at the hotel, he did not like the security set up by the hotel at the auction room and so he brought the shoes up to his guest room. When event organizers, who Cartier said were forced to pay extra for hotel security, complained to management, hotel management said they would assign a guard just to watch the Jackson memorabilia, according to Cartier.
"I said to the girl (security guard) 'You're going to watch this with your life, right?'" Cartier recalled. "She said yes, I slapped her a high five and said thank you."
However, when Cartier returned to the silent auction room, the jacket was there but the shoes, which he said are valued at $50,000, were gone.
"There was a bunch of hotel security standing around shooting the breeze," he said. "They said 'We lost them, man.'"
According to Cartier, the guards have "a million stories," but he said they told police somebody took the jacket and ran down the hallway with it and when security guards went to run after the person who took the jacket, someone else stole the shoes.
After his story was made public on social media and television yesterday, Cartier said an event organizer received a call from a woman who had the shoes.
The woman said that three drunk men had swiped the shoes and grabbed a ride to an after party with her and her friends in their limo. She said the drunken men left the shoes behind in the limo and she did not know what they were until she saw the story about their disappearence online and on television.
She then contacted an event organizer and returned the shoes to him. That man then returned them to Cartier.
"Never in a million years did I think I'd see them again," Cartier said. "And I'm known as a guy of fate. Everybody was telling me it will work out, but I didn't think it would."
Cartier said that while he is a "huge" Michael Jackson fan - he even attended the memorial service in Los Angeles when Jackson died - the real worth of the shoes is in how many lives can be changed by his charity after they are sold.
"I don't think people realize that there's so much value in them," he said. "When they do sell, there's so many wishes we can fulfill and wigs we can purchase."
The thief also took the CoA too...this story smells like fish.— Hobo Floto Voto- No, it's fraud. Using police and the mystery of a theft to boost the interest and the price on for a dead child molester's old shoes.
- @Penny, Some would say that you're stupid because you're blonde, I told them that you chose to be stupid.
— TopCat#1 - Yeah, something definitely fishy going on here. Are we to believe that a thief would go to the effort to steal the shoes, but then accidentally leave them behind in a limo? Yeah, right. Sounds to me like the "theft" was staged by the shoes-owner, 'cause he realized he wasn't gonna get the amount he wanted at auction, so planned to get his payday from his insurer (or the hotel's insurer).— Sir John Falstaff
- "But, even though the owner went on camera to tell 6ABC the King of Pop's kicks had been recovered, he never bothered to tell police, a police spokeswoman said today."
"Police today said that although Cartier reported the theft to them, he never called to tell them the shoes had been discovered and returned."
A tad conflicting...— DixonBunz - I THINK THIS WAS A HOAX TO RAISE THE VALUE OF THE SHOES!! WHAT A CREEP— wallycleaver
- Saw the headlines for this BS story either Saturday or Sunday on philly.com. This is truly one of the most impoortant stories ever to run on philly.com. Yea, right! Who gives a damn about the "signed shoes" of some dead, half-baked weirdo? Isn't there any real news out there?— mike 1717
- So none of you have any proof that this is a hoax. But you post that anyway, based on nothing but your sour attitude and runaway imagination. And some of you clearly didn't read (or comprehend) the article. Thank you sooooo much for your valuable contribution to the discussion boards. Trolls.— Tatt2
Bet the autograph is fake anyway. COAs are worthless pieces of paper.— jp8899- "OMGawd!" Is Martini up to his semi-annual capuchin monkeyshines again? (Jeanette Tallant, "Beloved pet monkey comes home for the holiday," Gloucester County Times, Monday, 12/16/02, p. A-1). Or is the Jesus actor readying himself for another guilty plea for fraud? (Martin C. Bricketto, "Hopeful admits '03 plea to fraud," Gloucester County Times, Thursday, 5/18/06, p. A-1). It's amazing who you'll find worshipping at the altars of the "look at me, Lord" monied megachurch of Gloucester County. (Joseph A. Gambardello, "Lawsuit accuses NJ man of fraud," Philadelphia Inquirer, Saturday, 11/29/03, p.B-1). Perhaps the Philadelphia Police Department should look into these things!— Theophilus Antipas
