Veteran NL Umpire Bob Engel Charged in Baseball Card Theft

BAKERSFIELD — A veteran National League umpire has been charged with stealing 4,180 baseball cards from a Target retail store, authorities said.

Bob Engel, 56, was released on $5,000 bail from Kern County Jail Saturday and is scheduled to be arraigned May 2 on misdemeanor counts of commercial burglary and petty theft, police said.

A Target security officer told police that Engel put seven boxes of Score brand baseball cards, valued at $143.98, into a brown paper bag he pulled from the waist band of his pants.

Engel was detained as he walked out of the store with the bag on Saturday, police said.

Engel, who completed his first full year in the major leagues in 1966, was back at the ball park on Sunday when he worked the Los Angeles Dodgers game from first base.