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Families react to theft of sports memorabilia

The theft ring stretched across several states, leaving museum walls empty, trophy cases smashed, and families cherished sports memorabilia gone forever.

CLARKS SUMMIT, Pa. — "I have three sisters and a brother, and I had to call all them, and you know, really we were just heartbroken," said Greg Wall.

Stretching over 20 years, The Country Club of Scranton was one of many places prosecutors say a group of nine allegedly broke into, stealing art and other memorabilia.

For Wall, it was the trophy collection belonging to his father, the winner of the 1959 Masters Tournament Art Wall Jr.

"Couple silver cups from his Pennsylvania amateur victory's from back in the 40s, his 1975 Milwaukee open trophy, dad at the time was the second oldest to win a PGA tour event, that was a bummer. Everything that was taken it was very upsetting," Wall said.

Eight out of the nine people indicted turned themselves in, except for Nicolas Dombek of Lackawanna County.

His niece, Olivia Clause, is also the family attorney.

"It is the cornerstones of the United States criminal justice system that we are all innocent until and unless proven guilty we believe Nicolas did not do this crime," Clause said. "He is an innocent man that is in reasonable fear that the government will not serve him justice or value his life."

Clause has been handling her uncle's legal matters for several years and can only imagine what he is going through after this indictment.

"We are devastated That he could possibly be in so much fear That he would run, but that is the fact of the matter. This is our government that we work with," Clause added. 

Since 2011, Greg Wall has not seen the original trophies that were taken, but he says his father's legacy lives on. 

"Country club in Scranton was kind enough back when this happened we replicated a lot of the items, so they're certainly not the original items, but we were able to replicate some of them, so we still have a pretty neat representation of dad's background here," Wall said.

Nicholas Dombek is considered a fugitive from justice.

His family says he poses no threat to the community.

 Among the heists attributed to the thieves was a 1999 break-in at Keystone College in Factoryville.

Mathewson memorabilia stolen

They allegedly swiped a jersey worn by Christy Mathewson, the Wyoming County native who's a member of the baseball hall of fame.

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 A couple of Christy Mathewson's signed baseball contracts were also stolen in the 1999 burglary.

Memorabilia from some of the most famous members of the New York Yankees are also listed among the items that were stolen.

Yankees items among those stolen

The Yogi Berra Museum in Little Falls, New Jersey, says the Hall of Famer's priceless world series rings were taken in a burglary in 2014 and likely melted down for metal.

Yogi Berra won ten world series with the Yankees.

Replicas of his original rings are now on display at the museum in New Jersey.

Want to see what Newswatch 16's newscast was like in 1976? Head on over to WNEP's YouTube.

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