'The Mick' solves burglary

Mickey Mantle has come through in the clutch, again.

The late New York Yankees legend may have helped the Glenn County Sheriff’s Department solve a residential burglary only days after the home of Bob Ballew was hit.

Ballew said thieves took his safe and a fanny pack, but left dozens of hunting rifles, knives and home entertainment equipment when they burglarized his house on Pacific Avenue Tuesday.

The safe also contained dozens of Ballew’s old baseball cards, family birth certificates, passports and an old coin collection.

“There wasn’t a lot of money in there,” Ballew said.

Ballew said he made a trip to the dump in northern Glenn County around noon and when he returned, the safe was gone.

The thieves may have entered through an unlocked side door, he said.

Ballew received word Wednesday that at least some of his property had been recovered in Oregon – including an original 1968 or ’69 Topps Mickey Mantle.

The card isn’t particularly valuable to collectors, Ballew said, and is not the centerpiece of Ballew’s collection.

“But it’s worth a lot more to me now,” Ballew said Wednesday.

Sheriff’s Lt. Rich Warren said heads-up officers in Roseburg, Oregon, had made arrests for what he believes was another burglary in that area.

The Mantle card had Ballew’s name and address on it, and the authorities there contacted the Sheriff’s Department in Willows.

“We don’t have much more information,” said Warren, who is waiting for arrest reports to be sent down from Oregon. “We don’t even know how many people (were arrested).”

What Warren does know, however, is if those arrested committed a burglary near Willows one day, and apparently one in Oregon the next, it is possible they made “other stops” along the way.

Warren said when the department gets the reports, officials will coordinate with other agencies that have burglaries reported in the same general time frame.