Collectors Gone Mad

This may be old news, but I still cannot believe it. Several years ago, FBI authorities busted a fraud ring in the memorabilia industry that included a dozen baseballs with forged Mother Teresa signatures.


"Operation Bullpen" quotes the master forger:

"I never thought anyone would be interested in a Mother Teresa forgery. On a baseball, no less. I'm thinking, Who the hell can they be selling these to? But at that point it didn't matter. It was all the same to me."

This sounds too crazy to be true, sounds like an Internet joke or an urban legend. However, the FBI website affirms the operations and the San Diego FBI website lists Mother Teresa first among the celebrity autographs forged. According to its website, the Baseball Reliquary in California retains possession of these infamous forgeries:

"At the request of the Baseball Reliquary, federal law enforcement authorities donated to the organization the box of one dozen baseballs bearing Mother Teresa’s forged signature to be used for exhibition purposes in order to alert consumers to the large amount of inauthentic memorabilia in the marketplace and to warn them to be cautious when purchasing autographed. items."

I just hope no one breaks in there and steals these baseballs, recreating the entirely bizarre sequence of events where on person offers to sell a saint's autograph on a baseball and another person buys it.