DA: Man tried to sell stolen Red Sox gear

The arrest of a Massachusetts man has led Suffolk County police to a stockpile of Boston Red Sox stolen goods, including a bullpen home plate and a 380-foot marker that was sliced off the right field wall at Fenway Park, District Attorney Thomas Spota said Thursday.

Jamie Pritchard Holland, 32, of Nahant, Mass., told Lelands.com, a Bohemia-based online auction house, that the equipment had been donated to him by the brother of Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein, Spota said at a news conference.

Police said Holland fabricated a story about a sickly son to help fence the Red Sox equipment. Holland was arrested before the equipment was auctioned off.

The equipment -- which police recovered at the Leland's warehouse on Knickerbocker Avenue -- had been stolen in a series of burglaries at Fenway Park, the most substantial being an April 2010 heist, according to Spota. Spota said he did not believe Holland to be the actual thief.

Spota said Holland bought a van full of the equipment for $600 and is cooperating with police. Spota said authorities believe that Leland's auction house acted in good faith when it heard that Holland had come by the goods honestly and was selling it off to help pay for hospital bills for his sick son.

"There was no sick child, there were no hospital bills, there were no doctors' bills, there was nothing but pure greed on Holland's part," Spota said.

The equipment, featured in Lelands.com's December catalog, included third baseman Kevin Youkilis' glove, second baseman Dustin Pedroia's cleats, a stadium seat and a number of game-worn jerseys and batting helmets.

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Spota said the fraud was exposed five months ago when investigators from Major League Baseball discovered the stolen equipment on Leland's website.

Spota said Holland has been charged with third-degree criminal possession of stolen property. He is facing similar charges in Boston, a spokesman for the district attorney's office there said, but, according to Spota, prosecution will be deferred to New York.

Holland's con was far-reaching, Spota said, as he went to visit Red Sox legend Johnny Pesky and convinced him to autograph the 380-foot marker using the same story he told Leland's.

"Someone actually took a razor, cut it out, and rolled it up," said Christopher McPartland, Suffolk County's division chief of investigations.

Said Spota: "This guy was nothing but a scam artist."

A Boston Police Department spokesman said that there was no additional information on the ongoing investigation.