DIA luggage thief grabbed bags from Peter Frampton, others, police say Read more: DIA luggage thief grabbed bags from Peter Frampton, others, police say

Papelbon is charged with four counts of theft and two counts of burglary, all felonies, in the latest luggage lift, which happened Oct. 27. Surveillance footage from the baggage carousel shows a man matching Papelbon’s description — heavyset, white hair, blue jeans — loading luggage onto a Smarte baggage carte, according to an arrest affidavit. The man can then be seen abandoning the cart and rolling a bag out of sight.

About two hours later, a couple from Athens, Greece, reported at least one of their bags missing — along with nearly $12,000 worth of designer clothing that was inside. Armani, Brioni, Ralph Lauren, Kors. Gone.

When Denver Detective David Stolley showed the couple the surveillance tape, they realized their bag was the one being whisked away from the carousel, court documents show. A driver’s license photo of Papelbon also matched the image seen on the tape.

Thornton reported the arrest of a cooperative Papelbon on Nov. 6. He told a Thornton officer he stole the Greek couple’s bag and three others at DIA and that their expensive contents were inside his home, police wrote in an application to search it.
When it comes to luggage, John Allen Papelbon has an eye for quality and an appreciation for the finer things.

Unfortunately, some of those finer things turned out to belong to others, Denver police said. One of them was 1970s guitar god Peter Frampton.

Papelbon, 52, admitted taking seven bags from Denver International Airport, nearly half of the 17 reported stolen from the airport’s carousels so far this year.

Detectives who searched his Thornton home this month found bags with brands such as Tumi, Gucci, Burberry and Polo, along with items like jewelry, a Philadelphia Eagles jacket, North Face ski wear, computer equipment and golf shoes — enough items to fill four pages of a search-warrant inventory.

And police said it wasn’t their first interaction with Papelbon. The same detective who arrested him this month also questioned him about stealing bags off the DIA carousels in May 2010 after a woman told police she bought her own Coach purse, which had been inside her stolen luggage, on eBay. She bought it from Papelbon, who told police he bought it from someone else at a hotel and didn’t know it had been stolen.

There wasn’t enough evidence to charge Papelbon at that time, police said. But that case is once again part of the Denver district attorney’s case file.

When Stolley questioned him later that day, Papelbon admitted stealing seven bags from the airport. Two bags were in his garage, he said, and a third tweed bag was in his bedroom. He had emptied the contents into plastic bags, according to the document. Among the items: a bag tag belonging to Frampton, who was due to perform in Beaver Creek the next day. That was the only item recovered from his luggage, which prosecutors say Papelbon took from the airport July 22. Also, Papelbon is charged with taking a bag belonging to an Atlanta woman the same day.

Contacted at his home Tuesday, Papelbon said he had “no comments about the ongoing case.” Court records show his only prior offense in Denver was a 2009 speeding ticket on Peña Boulevard — the road that leads to DIA.

About 1 million bags pass through DIA’s carousels a month during the holidays, airport officials said.

With more than 150,000 passengers traveling through DIA this Thanksgiving weekend, airport officials say they have ramped up security measures to ward off baggage thieves. There will be a greater police presence and greater communication with other airports in the event of a theft, DIA spokeswoman Stacey Stegman said.

And the surveillance cameras that police said led them to Papelbon will be rolling.

“Typically, what we see is one person or two people working together who have taken more than one bag,” Stegman said. But, she added, “We don’t think this is a major problem at the airport.”

Papelbon faces a preliminary hearing Dec. 10.

Source:
The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com