WEBVTT - Stealing Superman: Episode Eight — Special Farewell Issue 0:00:09.400 --> 0:00:14.960 Love and Las Vegas. Las Vegas, home of cheesy, magic, 0:00:15.200 --> 0:00:19.400 ultimate fighting, and people mortgaging their homes to let it ride. 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:25.439 It's a playground for adults, a disneyland of decadence. And 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:31.120 on this day in June, something even more remarkable than 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:36.800 disappearing elephants is happening. I say remarkable because it might 0:00:36.880 --> 0:00:39.680 be one of the few wholesome things going on in 0:00:39.720 --> 0:00:44.519 the city. It's the Las Vegas Comic Con. Thousands of 0:00:44.560 --> 0:00:48.120 fans are streaming into the building to get autographs from 0:00:48.240 --> 0:00:52.360 artists and pick up titles for their collections. Some are 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:55.720 browsing comic books that are a dollar or less. Some 0:00:55.800 --> 0:00:59.639 are picking up titles worth a few hundred and one man, 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:05.600 one very recognizable man, is spending a lot more than that. 0:01:06.520 --> 0:01:11.560 Nicholas Cage, once a disenfranchised comic fan, is back in 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:15.640 the game. As fans gawk and ask for his autograph, 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:19.479 Cage admires big ticket books like X Men Number one 0:01:19.600 --> 0:01:24.360 and Fantastic Four number one, titles worth hundreds of thousands 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:29.240 of dollars, titles he used to own before ditching his 0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:34.320 entire collection. Surrounded by tables full of books, it's like 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:38.600 the world's most expensive flea market. He holds them up 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:42.600 for scrutiny, squinting to make out the pencil lines through 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:49.000 their protective plastic casing. Some sixteen years after losing four 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:53.000 of the most valuable comics in the world, Cage is 0:01:53.040 --> 0:01:57.840 seemingly ready to rejoin the ranks of the comics faithful. 0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:05.360 It's also been five years since his most treasured book, 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:11.919 Action Comics Number One, surfaced in a storage locker. No arrests, 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:17.359 no real suspects, just a story, one pretty much impossible 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:22.200 to prove or disprove, but one worth examining to see 0:02:22.240 --> 0:02:26.720 if there's any clue or trace of how a multimillion 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:31.160 dollar comic wound up in a storage unit, the place 0:02:31.200 --> 0:02:35.560 where people store old rugs and broken chairs. Two men, 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:40.880 Mark Ballo, and a man known only as Sylvester, presented 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:44.560 it for sale, not knowing one of their potential buyers 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:49.680 was an undercover police officer. But just who are Mark 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:53.520 and Sylvester and why does one of them seem to 0:02:53.600 --> 0:02:58.880 have an unlikely connection to Cage. It's a page turner, 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:12.720 and we are at the last page for I Heart Radio. 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:17.040 This is Stealing Superman. I'm your host Danis Schwartz and 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:26.800 This is the final episode special farewell issue a quick recap. 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:31.480 Nick Cage's copy of Action Comics Number one was stolen, 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:35.280 along with three other comics from his bell Air home 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:41.400 around two thousand. After several leads failed to materialize, Action 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:45.920 number one was finally discovered in April two thousand eleven, 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:50.520 when a storage unit liquidator named Mark Palelo emailed comic 0:03:50.560 --> 0:03:53.640 dealer Stephen Fishler and told him he had a copy 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:57.240 for sale. Fishler was the same dealer who sold the 0:03:57.280 --> 0:04:01.920 book to Cage. Unfortunately for Ballelo, he was able to 0:04:02.080 --> 0:04:07.720 positively identify it as cages copy. Fishler and l ap 0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:12.000 D detective Donald Harresk went to Ballelo's warehouse to see 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:15.560 it in person. There they met Ballelo and a man 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:19.440 named Sylvester, who claimed to have found the comic in 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:23.880 a storage locker he had bought at auction. But here's 0:04:23.920 --> 0:04:29.440 the twist, he couldn't remember which one. With nothing tying 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:34.320 either Ballelo or Sylvester to the original theft, and without 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:38.679 a storage locker owner to question, the case went cold. 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:42.800 Cage got his comic back from the insurance company and 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:46.600 sold it for two point one six one million dollars. 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:51.719 Mark Ballelo seemed to relish the attention, immediately notifying the 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:55.640 press about the controversy. He even hosted auctions in a 0:04:55.800 --> 0:05:00.919 Superman costume Sylvester all but disappeared for the storage locker 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:05.000 scene as quickly as he had entered it. The next 0:05:05.040 --> 0:05:09.800 steps seemed obvious enough. Reach out to both men and 0:05:09.920 --> 0:05:13.640 see what they have to say. In the case of Mark, 0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:18.400 that's unfortunately impossible, and we'll get to why in a moment. 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:22.120 But we did speak to several people who knew him 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:26.119 and worked for him, and this is where things get 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:32.840 well more interesting. He seemed fun. He seemed like a 0:05:32.920 --> 0:05:36.560 fun guy. Like I said, from what I saw the 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:39.239 way he treated his family that would come from Brazil. 0:05:39.360 --> 0:05:41.640 He was very generous with them. I could tell he 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:46.200 loved them a lot. That's Liz. Liz worked for Mark 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:50.680 for a few years, overseeing his online sales division. She 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:54.239 got to know Mark fairly well, and while he was nice, 0:05:54.720 --> 0:05:59.799 there were dimensions to him that could be unsettling. Drug 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:03.880 habits and stuff that he didn't really care to hide 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:07.000 from anybody. But he was fun to talk to. I 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:10.400 enjoyed having conversations with him. Yeah, No, he was he 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:13.159 had his moments. You know, because of his drug case, 0:06:13.279 --> 0:06:16.520 he would get a little aggravated. But I mean, other 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:21.839 than that, I enjoyed working for him while things were good. 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:25.000 At the time Mark popped up with the action number one, 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:29.040 he was actually on probation. Mark had been arrested back 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:34.039 in December two thousand seven on three felony charges, possession 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:38.279 of the controlled substance, possession with intend to sell or distribute, 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:43.000 and sale or transport of a controlled substance. Mark denied 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:46.240 any wrongdoing and said friends had been using drugs in 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:50.160 a hotel room registered in his name. He pled guilty 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:52.640 to the last charge in two thousand nine and was 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:57.080 sentenced to sixty days in jail along with three years probation. 0:06:57.800 --> 0:07:01.520 That's an important detail for a cup of reasons. If 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:04.839 Mark somehow knew the comic book was stolen before attempting 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:08.280 to sell it, it would be colossally silly for him 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:12.600 to get involved while on probation. The last thing you 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:15.280 want to do when you're being monitored for good behavior 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:20.640 is be in possession of stolen property. On the other hand, well, 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:26.080 Mark wasn't exactly being overly careful. In June two thousand eleven, 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:29.560 two months after trying to sell the comic, Mark was 0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:33.760 in violation of his parole for possessing a firearm. Mark's 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:35.760 story was that he had found it in a storage 0:07:35.840 --> 0:07:39.520 unit and was simply transporting it, but not long after, 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:45.160 he left California without approval, another parole violation that landed 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:48.560 him forty five days in jail. It's hard to know 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:52.640 to what degree Mark was involved in, well, let's say, 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:57.720 alternative businesses. A report from Radar in two thousand thirteen 0:07:58.200 --> 0:08:01.200 stated that Mark was sometimes high on the set of 0:08:01.280 --> 0:08:04.960 Storage Wars, the A and E reality show about storage 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:08.320 locker auctions, and that he bragged he could get large 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:13.080 quantities of drugs from connections in Tijuana. But Liz isn't 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:16.080 so sure about that. I think he was just using it. 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:20.360 I don't think he sold it. Mark could be erratic. 0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:25.400 He would make very rash decisions and not think them 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:29.840 out thoroughly. And so he fired his manager, who was 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:33.400 oh my gosh, she was there for him anytime he 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:35.800 needed her, and he decided to fire her. I can't 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:38.840 remember what it was for. And then her husband also 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:41.720 worked for him as well, and he fired him too, 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:46.280 And then he fired me shortly after that. Yeah, there 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:50.680 were other employees that he would get into arguments with, 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:55.600 and I don't think he took his employees very seriously 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:58.440 or he cared to have like a good relationship with us. 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:03.360 There were other aspects of Mark's life that didn't quite 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:07.280 add up. Before becoming a storage unit magnate, he had 0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:12.199 declared bankruptcy back in two thousand eight. Mark's bankruptcy documents 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:15.960 also revealed that two people filed to oppose his debts 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:19.200 to them being discharged because they were owed money for 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:23.240 new cars he had failed to deliver. Prior to getting 0:09:23.240 --> 0:09:26.959 into the storage unit business, Mark owned a car dealership. 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:31.280 According to the two customers, he had accepted their orders 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:35.120 for cars with a value of over forty dollars each. 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:39.480 Then Mark later admitted he had used that money to 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:45.120 pay down other debts. Despite offering excuse after excuse that 0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:48.560 the cars were stuck in transit or that their registration 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:53.359 needed more paperwork, he had never actually obtained the cars. 0:09:54.520 --> 0:09:58.720 There's something else we learned to Prior to owning his dealership, 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:04.280 Mark worked Beverly Hills as a car salesman, and according 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:07.439 to an employee of his, we spoke with Mark had 0:10:07.520 --> 0:10:12.800 sold at least one car to none other than Nicholas Cage. 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:17.640 Maybe that's just a coincidence. After all, Cage used to 0:10:17.640 --> 0:10:21.120 buy cars like other people buy socks, so there was 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:24.560 a decent chance any salesman in Los Angeles could have 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:29.160 eventually crossed paths with him. And there's no evidence Mark 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:32.520 new Cage or was ever at his house in bel Air. 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:36.640 In fact, we are reasonably confident we can place Mark 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:40.200 firmly in Arizona at the time of the theft. But 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:44.840 it is interesting that Mark called Stephen Fishler, the one 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:49.560 dealer who could positively identify the comic as Cages. That's 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:54.640 another weird coincidence. Stephen believes it's because he brokered other 0:10:54.840 --> 0:11:00.000 high dollar comic sales, and that's probably why Mark called him. 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:03.600 There are plenty of mysteries surrounding Mark that would make 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:08.880 for an interesting conversation with him. But Mark had problems 0:11:09.040 --> 0:11:14.880 that ran deep. In February, he was arrested again for 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:20.720 drug possession for Math. The repeated offenses were piling up 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:24.880 and things didn't look good for him. That same month, 0:11:25.280 --> 0:11:29.559 an employee of Marks walked into the warehouse, the same 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:33.000 warehouse where he tried to sell the Action number one 0:11:33.480 --> 0:11:38.240 and found Mark dead by suicide, his car engine idling 0:11:38.280 --> 0:11:42.960 in the garage. It was carbon monoxide poisoning. He was 0:11:43.040 --> 0:11:46.280 just forty years old. He just seemed like a fun guy. 0:11:46.480 --> 0:11:48.480 I don't know. I would have never in a million 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:50.520 years thought that he would kill himself the way he did. 0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:54.640 I would have never thought that. We're left with so 0:11:54.679 --> 0:12:00.839 many questions and so few answers. But remember fell auctioneer 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:04.880 Dan Dotson said he'd been approached by the man who 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:09.280 found the comic book and gave him Mark's information. Mark 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:14.000 didn't volunteer. So what about the man who had handed 0:12:14.040 --> 0:12:16.640 Mark the comic and said he found it in a 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:26.640 storage locker. The man known only as Sylvester, the man 0:12:26.720 --> 0:12:30.240 who said he bought in the story junits that he purchased. 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:33.680 So he's asking everyone to believe a multi million dollars 0:12:33.720 --> 0:12:37.240 said the main comics stolen from Nicholas Cage ends up 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:40.120 in the storage locker, that this man just hast bide. 0:12:41.600 --> 0:12:46.760 That's Paul Hendry, you probably remember Paul, reformed art thief 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:51.959 turned consultant for art crime investigations. Paul has seen and 0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:55.080 heard it all, and he has an opinion on the 0:12:55.240 --> 0:12:59.240 storage locker story, the one where Sylvester claimed he bought 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:02.439 a number of lockers and then found the action number 0:13:02.480 --> 0:13:06.600 one among their contents, but he couldn't remember which one. 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:09.600 Number one is. Watched the odds you're going to find 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:13.000 a multimillion dollar comics in a storage locker? Best the 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:15.839 first one. The second one is, what's the odds is 0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:19.440 someone who buys multiple storage lockers, not one single one? 0:13:19.880 --> 0:13:22.240 And the third thing is, watch the odds they can't 0:13:22.240 --> 0:13:26.160 remember which storage locker it came in, so that there's 0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:29.200 so many red flames. I think we can just dismiss 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:33.559 the storage locker story as just a fake, fabricated story. 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:36.839 I have the luxury, but just us him my forty 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:40.520 years of experience and analyzing the situation and coming up 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:45.680 with what my considered opinion is highly valuable items have 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:51.040 turned up in some very unlikely places, including storage lockers, 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:54.760 but when they do, there's always a chance that their 0:13:54.840 --> 0:14:00.640 discovery could have been orchestrated. Why one part sable motive 0:14:00.720 --> 0:14:04.560 for stolen art servicing isn't to sell it, it's to 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:07.440 get a reward for it. Well, let me tell you, right, 0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:10.480 if a private art detective was on this case, he 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:15.760 would charge the insurance company twenty class fact of the 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:19.280 insurance claim, which would have been if we assume it's 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:21.760 a hundred fifty tho and he would have wanted a 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:25.080 hundred fifty thou dollars per insurance claim. He would have 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:28.880 wanted thirty six thousand dollars as his fee for being 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:32.160 a private art detective who recovered this comic, the fact 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:35.080 that it's worth and sold the two point one million. 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:38.880 Some art detectives would also sign a contract to say 0:14:38.960 --> 0:14:42.880 that they want ten or twenty if it's sold within 0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:45.720 a period of time. So on two point one million, 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:47.960 that would have been a lot of money. Okay, So 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:50.840 that would be private art detectives. And I criticized them 0:14:50.880 --> 0:14:53.520 sometimes when they do that because that doesn't look to 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:57.160 be transparent. But these people who recovered it, I would 0:14:57.160 --> 0:14:59.920 have assumed that they wouldn't have gone away quietly. Is 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:02.600 especially if they are not being in dieted on any 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:06.640 criminal charges. They may have a claim for a finder's fee. 0:15:08.160 --> 0:15:12.880 So is that why Mark Balelo called Stephen Fishler not 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:17.160 as a coincidence, but to prove it was Cage's comic. 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:22.760 To pursue some kind of reward. That's Paul's theory, and 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:26.440 it doesn't mean either Mark or Sylvester had anything to 0:15:26.480 --> 0:15:30.000 do with the book being stolen, just that some research 0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:33.320 could have led Mark to believe this book found in 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:37.520 a storage unit could be worth a finder's fee. Here's 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:42.960 Paul's possible scenario. They were prepared for it to be identified, 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:47.320 but wanted to portray themselves Sylvester as being honest and 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:50.880 above board. That was the intention, was to filter into 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:54.960 Nicolas Cages Deana via a third party file wall, which 0:15:55.000 --> 0:15:57.400 is Mark, and then that's a plain. So then when 0:15:57.400 --> 0:15:59.800 the dealer comes out and says this is the one, 0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:02.560 then they may not have thought Donald would be cop 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:05.120 would have been there, but that the next thing would 0:16:05.120 --> 0:16:07.600 have been if they hadn't have had it confiscated off 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:10.360 of them, then there might have been a legal dispute 0:16:10.360 --> 0:16:13.480 and they would have still had possession of it. Maybe 0:16:13.480 --> 0:16:15.600 they didn't account for the fact that Donald was going 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:19.240 to be there and confiscate it, but even if that happened, 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:22.080 their whole intention was to monetize it and claim my 0:16:22.200 --> 0:16:25.920 finder's fee or a reward. So they knew at some 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:28.120 stage that they was going to have to be declared 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:30.600 that this was the sole a month from Nicolas Cage. 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:33.960 Maybe the initial plan was to have the dealer look 0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:36.640 at it and go, yes, that's the original I wanted back. 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:38.880 And then the person go well, no, ang and speak 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:42.120 to my lawyer and maybe getting to litigation over it 0:16:42.200 --> 0:16:44.400 or something, and declared they want to find this thing. 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:47.520 And then when Donald turned up and dis confiscated it, 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:49.400 they went, well, we can still go down the same 0:16:49.480 --> 0:16:53.920 road and claim the finders feel again. That's Paul's theory. 0:16:54.520 --> 0:16:58.200 And for Paul, the most intriguing part of the story 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:01.480 is that of all the commock dealers in the country, 0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:06.800 Mark could have called he called Stephen Fishler literally the 0:17:06.840 --> 0:17:11.560 only person on earth who could positively identify the action 0:17:11.640 --> 0:17:16.320 number one as cages. This Mark person, right, why would 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:18.800 he focus in on the one avenue that's going to 0:17:18.920 --> 0:17:21.760 lead straight back to Nicolas Cage. Why not take a 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:24.639 local estimate, right, He's part of a plane. It was 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:27.560 a plane, it's a scan, it was a sting. It's 0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:31.159 a thing to monetize the Superman comic. And then they 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:33.879 tried to make it so confusing that the police wouldn't 0:17:33.920 --> 0:17:37.280 be able to pin it on anyone. But yes, of course, 0:17:37.320 --> 0:17:39.840 because this is such a small world. It's got to 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:43.400 go through Nicolas Cage stealer in New York, and he's 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:45.560 going to be made aware of it. Yes again, it's 0:17:45.720 --> 0:17:47.920 I mean their story. He's like a Swiss change. It's 0:17:47.960 --> 0:17:51.480 for the holes. Cages comic sold for two point one 0:17:51.600 --> 0:17:55.240 six one million dollars just a few months after it 0:17:55.359 --> 0:17:59.720 was found, making even a percentage of that a very valuable. 0:18:00.960 --> 0:18:03.359 But Stephen Fishler, who was there when the l a 0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:07.000 p d. Sees the comic from Mark and Sylvester, doesn't 0:18:07.080 --> 0:18:11.200 think that's what happened. Here's Stephen. No, there was a trip. 0:18:11.240 --> 0:18:13.919 They wanted to sell it and it was a stolen book. 0:18:14.119 --> 0:18:16.560 When y've gone, all right, we want a million dollars. Oh, 0:18:16.600 --> 0:18:19.240 by the way, this book stolen, it's a little hard 0:18:19.240 --> 0:18:21.080 while the police is there to go, hey, how about 0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:25.359 a reward now? You know, I think if they had 0:18:25.520 --> 0:18:29.359 said we think this book is the stolen book, you know, 0:18:29.440 --> 0:18:31.760 I could see giving them a reward for the recovery 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:35.000 of it. But it just wasn't in the cards. There's 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:40.240 a real mystique surrounding Sylvester. For one thing. Stephen remembers 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:44.920 that he introduced himself as Arthur, and Mark Ballelo told 0:18:44.960 --> 0:18:49.080 people that Sylvester only went by his first name. Mark 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:52.639 said he didn't even know Sylvester's last name, which is 0:18:53.000 --> 0:18:56.720 very strange. If you were planning to split the profits 0:18:56.760 --> 0:19:00.640 from a multimillion dollar comic with someone, wouldn't you want 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:05.640 to know their last name. Few people did, and maybe 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:09.520 that was by design, but at some point his full 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:12.879 name did leak out, which allowed us to try and 0:19:12.920 --> 0:19:15.760 get a better understanding of the man at the crux 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:20.399 of all this, the person who found Cages comic after 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:26.359 it had been missing eleven years. Sylvester doesn't have much 0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:29.480 in the way of a social media presence, but we 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:33.240 can tell you he is or was a contractor by 0:19:33.280 --> 0:19:37.880 trade and no longer living in California. He's into cars, 0:19:38.160 --> 0:19:40.760 as so many of the people in this story seemed 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:43.840 to be. We reached a former employer of his who 0:19:43.880 --> 0:19:46.479 said he was a nice guy who wound up quitting. 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:50.440 The employer thought it might have been because of the comic, 0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:54.919 because he expected to come into a windfall. Despite his 0:19:55.000 --> 0:19:58.600 lack of an online presence, and after a lot of 0:19:58.720 --> 0:20:03.520 trial and error, we did manage to find Sylvester we 0:20:03.640 --> 0:20:07.720 wanted to ask about finding the comic, but within minutes 0:20:07.800 --> 0:20:12.520 of messaging him, he deleted his social media profile. So 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:17.080 we tried email and got no response. Then we reached 0:20:17.080 --> 0:20:20.000 out to some friends of his to see what else 0:20:20.040 --> 0:20:22.680 we might be able to learn or to find out 0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:27.159 how we could contact him. That's when Sylvester asked for 0:20:27.240 --> 0:20:31.040 our reporter's number and then sent a text saying he 0:20:31.119 --> 0:20:34.639 did not want to talk about finding the comic. We 0:20:34.760 --> 0:20:39.040 asked again and again, as much as we'd like to 0:20:39.080 --> 0:20:42.639 hear from Sylvester. He apparently said all he wanted to 0:20:42.680 --> 0:20:46.520 say to Detective Horresik on the day the comic was seized. 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:52.240 The story he told the detective is certainly intriguing. According 0:20:52.280 --> 0:20:54.679 to people we spoke with who have knowledge of the 0:20:54.800 --> 0:20:59.280 storage locker liquidation market, taking the contents from a bunch 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:01.920 of lockers and pulling it all together to sort through 0:21:02.040 --> 0:21:06.680 later isn't unheard of. With storage auctions, you're given only 0:21:06.720 --> 0:21:09.560 a limited amount of time to clear out the unit, 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:13.240 after all, that's why the locker company wants stuff gone 0:21:13.680 --> 0:21:16.280 so they can rent it out to someone else. You 0:21:16.400 --> 0:21:19.800 might have just twenty four or forty eight hours, so 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:22.800 piling everything into a truck to sort through later. If 0:21:22.840 --> 0:21:28.280 you've bought several units, might be wise. Here's Liz again. 0:21:29.160 --> 0:21:31.680 There's just so much stuff there to look through. It's 0:21:31.880 --> 0:21:33.840 hard to keep track of it, especially when you're just 0:21:33.880 --> 0:21:36.800 looking through everything and everything just kind of gets bunched 0:21:36.840 --> 0:21:41.720 into one place. But the opposite is also true. Some 0:21:41.800 --> 0:21:45.960 locker storage buyers keep a strict inventory of where items 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:50.040 came from in case something stolen or illegal like drugs, 0:21:50.160 --> 0:21:53.040 are ever discovered. They don't want to be the ones 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:58.520 suspected of possessing them. The other consideration is whether anyone 0:21:58.840 --> 0:22:02.520 really would leave a rare and delicate comic in a 0:22:02.600 --> 0:22:06.399 storage locker and then neglect to pay the bill. Hey, 0:22:06.520 --> 0:22:10.560 it's possible. Sometimes lockers are abandoned because the person renting 0:22:10.560 --> 0:22:14.399 it dies or goes to prison. If a storage locker 0:22:14.480 --> 0:22:17.919 owner was storing the comic there, then it would be 0:22:17.960 --> 0:22:21.200 a matter of inquiring to the owner whether they knew 0:22:21.200 --> 0:22:25.600 anything about the comic. But the problem the storage facility had, 0:22:25.800 --> 0:22:28.760 and the reason they put the lockers up for public sale, 0:22:29.440 --> 0:22:33.000 is that their owners weren't easily reached and couldn't pay 0:22:33.040 --> 0:22:37.800 the bill. Because Sylvester couldn't remember which locker the comic 0:22:37.880 --> 0:22:41.239 came from. There wouldn't be much use in trying to 0:22:41.320 --> 0:22:44.480 contact them. You could never prove it was theirs to 0:22:44.520 --> 0:22:48.120 begin with. I think as we've gone through the whole story, 0:22:48.520 --> 0:22:50.920 it really is a Russian dole. You know, you're only 0:22:51.000 --> 0:22:53.840 more and more layers. You're peeling back the onion and 0:22:54.119 --> 0:22:56.960 every kind of stop. There is something there that doesn't 0:22:57.000 --> 0:22:59.760 smell right, It doesn't taste right, and doesn't look right. 0:23:00.240 --> 0:23:02.960 And in the normal world of things, this is not 0:23:03.000 --> 0:23:05.480 normally what would happen, from the theft of it, to 0:23:05.560 --> 0:23:08.240 the handling of it, to the surfacing of Chiu of 0:23:08.280 --> 0:23:11.439 the comics. But knowing who put the comic in the 0:23:11.520 --> 0:23:16.760 storage locker would still only tell just part of the story. 0:23:17.080 --> 0:23:20.840 Art theft is one giant game of hot potato. The 0:23:20.960 --> 0:23:24.919 more hands the stolen art passes through, the more convincing 0:23:24.960 --> 0:23:28.200 someone is when they say they have no idea where 0:23:28.200 --> 0:23:33.000 it came from, because they probably don't. And every time 0:23:33.000 --> 0:23:36.520 it changes hands, someone is sold on the fantasy that 0:23:37.119 --> 0:23:40.680 for just a few thousand dollars they can take possession 0:23:40.760 --> 0:23:45.680 of something worth millions. It's almost like a criminal lottery. 0:23:45.720 --> 0:23:48.119 If they can just figure out how to unload it 0:23:48.800 --> 0:23:52.320 and then well they can't, so they sell the dream 0:23:52.520 --> 0:23:57.800 to someone else. There's no evidence Mark Ballelo or Sylvester 0:23:58.000 --> 0:24:02.119 knew anything about the Action Number one being stolen. There's 0:24:02.119 --> 0:24:06.320 no evidence the storage locker story was fabricated. There are 0:24:06.400 --> 0:24:11.399 just questions which one man can't answer and another man won't, 0:24:12.080 --> 0:24:16.200 and that is his prerogative. It doesn't invalidate his story 0:24:16.600 --> 0:24:20.520 that he found the comic. Maybe the reason he doesn't 0:24:20.520 --> 0:24:23.080 want to talk about it is because watching two million 0:24:23.119 --> 0:24:27.840 dollars slip through your hands is too painful to revisit. However, 0:24:27.960 --> 0:24:31.679 cages comic made its way to Mark Balleto and Sylvester. 0:24:32.280 --> 0:24:36.520 It's a minor miracle it's surfaced at all. Cage, of 0:24:36.560 --> 0:24:40.760 course sold it for a handsome profit. But there's still 0:24:40.880 --> 0:24:45.280 one act left untold in this story. Where is the 0:24:45.400 --> 0:24:54.879 Action Number one? Now? Just a couple of months before 0:24:54.960 --> 0:24:58.080 Nicholas Cage popped up at the Las Vegas Comic Con 0:24:58.560 --> 0:25:02.040 is now very notor his comic book was on display 0:25:02.080 --> 0:25:06.480 in London, but it wasn't for public viewing. This was 0:25:06.560 --> 0:25:11.120 a private, invitation only affair at a hotel in the city. 0:25:11.520 --> 0:25:15.080 Five years after being discovered in the storage locker. One 0:25:15.200 --> 0:25:18.960 of the best copies of Action comics. Number one was 0:25:19.080 --> 0:25:23.919 inside a glass case and surrounded by security, just in 0:25:24.000 --> 0:25:27.760 case anyone had any ideas The comic was part of 0:25:27.760 --> 0:25:32.840 a collection being displayed courtesy of a man named Aman Harreary. 0:25:32.960 --> 0:25:37.360 A man is a very big Superman fan, though not 0:25:37.440 --> 0:25:41.200 for the reasons you may think. Here's a man. Superman 0:25:41.560 --> 0:25:44.639 was always part of me growing up. I guess it 0:25:44.840 --> 0:25:48.280 was a character that I used to watch on cartoons, 0:25:48.320 --> 0:25:51.760 and obviously, like every other kid, that captures your imagination. 0:25:51.800 --> 0:25:55.480 To imagine a person who can fly and be invulnerable 0:25:55.600 --> 0:25:59.520 to you know, being shot at or any kind of danger, 0:26:00.359 --> 0:26:03.680 it just sparks the imagination of all kinds of stories 0:26:03.760 --> 0:26:06.359 you build in your head and you imagine all the 0:26:06.400 --> 0:26:08.840 things that he can do. Even back then. I mean 0:26:08.880 --> 0:26:11.399 at the time it was, you know, faster than a 0:26:11.400 --> 0:26:16.280 speeding train and can leap tall buildings into you know, 0:26:16.320 --> 0:26:19.159 the modern version of what he can do these days. 0:26:19.680 --> 0:26:21.800 But I was living in Saudi at the time, so 0:26:21.880 --> 0:26:25.199 the only way that I was exposed to Superman was 0:26:26.240 --> 0:26:29.560 on VHS tapes that would be made available to us 0:26:29.600 --> 0:26:32.760 by people from living abroad and sending them to us 0:26:32.880 --> 0:26:37.639 or receiving a copy of a comic book. Well, I 0:26:37.680 --> 0:26:42.880 think when you're younger, things are less granular. You think 0:26:42.920 --> 0:26:46.560 about doing the right thing. What does it mean as 0:26:46.640 --> 0:26:49.280 an adult, and what does it mean as a child. 0:26:49.720 --> 0:26:53.720 It probably lacks granularity when you're a child, and you 0:26:53.760 --> 0:26:56.280 start to understand the nuances of doing the right thing 0:26:56.359 --> 0:26:59.640