March 21, 2011
Stolen Pete Sampras Trophies Dropped Off at L.A. Hospital
LOS ANGELES --- Tennis great Pete Sampras was set Monday to be reunited with dozens of his stolen trophies after they were dropped off anonymously at the back of a Los Angeles hospital.
Sampras was shocked in December when most of the silverware from his 64 tour titles, including one of his Australian Open trophies, disappeared from a storage facility in West Los Angeles.
But the trophies turned up Saturday after a private investigator got a tip-off that they would be left at a Los Angeles hospital, according to TMZ.com.
The investigator alerted the hospital security, where staff recovered some of the 14-time grand slam winner's trophies. It was unclear exactly which trophies were recovered.
Sampras told the Los Angeles Times at the time of the theft, "My first Australian Open trophy is gone, and so is everything else. We've had some housing issues and we stored things while we were sorting that out."
Sampras added he was stunned that the storage facility was not safe. "I was like, 'What?' I thought there were security cameras. I thought these things were locked up tight. I was shocked," he told the newspaper.
Police "had no idea" how the trophies came to be found at the hospital and were still investigating the thefts, TMZ.com reported.
March 21, 2011
Pete Sampras' stolen memorabilia is returned
By Bill Dwyre
An attorney allegedly representing those who took the items contacted his investigator say the trophies and other items would be returned, with the expectation of no further investigation or penalty.
Much of the tennis memorabilia stolen from Pete Sampras last November has been returned, according to an attorney who worked with investigators on the case.
Anthony Salerno, a Century City lawyer hired by the Sampras family to help in the investigation, said Sunday that another attorney allegedly representing those who took the material from a storage facility had contacted his investigator early Saturday morning to say the trophies and other items would be returned, with the expectation of no further investigation or penalty.
Salerno said that boxes of the Sampras memorabilia showed up Saturday morning at a hospital in Marina del Rey, and have now been turned over to the Los Angeles Police Department's commercial crimes division.
Salerno said that he had no idea why they were left at the hospital. He said he hoped that Sampras would have his memorabilia back after the police did an inventory. He said that other things taken from the storage facility, such as furniture Sampras and his wife, Bridgette Wilson, had placed there temporarily while moving homes, had not been returned.