3 people arrested in series of crimes

Ciara Lankford and Savannah Rudicel

37 mins ago

ASHEVILLE, NC (NEWS FROM QUEEN CITY) – Huntersville and Concord police said the investigations into the cases are ongoing and it is not yet clear whether the women arrested in Asheville are connected to a series of baseball bat thefts in the Charlotte area.

According to Asheville police, the women were arrested following a recent theft at D-BAT in the 1200 block of Hendersonville Road on Sunday around 2:23 p.m.

Officials said the three women tried to run away from the scene but were detained by officers. All three, Veronica Constantin, 41, Alexandra Lonescu, 31, and Jennifer Antonesco, 21, have been charged.

Ryan Query, CEO of D-Bat Concord, believes this is the same group that targeted his business in early June.

He said players and families spoke to him throughout Monday about the arrests.

“It feels really good,” Query said. “Our members are especially happy about it because it’s terrible for everyone when kids and their gaming rackets get robbed, so we’re happy they got them.”

According to Query, Rawlings and Easton helped replace the stolen clubs and replenish their inventory.

According to company management, the thieves targeted around 13 D-Bat locations.

Co-founder Kyle Griffis said after hearing similar reports from some of his franchisees, they sent a warning to all 164 locations across the country.

He said the criminals still managed to distract the reception staff while their accomplices smuggled the bats away in their skirts.

“They were still kind of attacking places,” Griffis said. “But we caught them a few times.”

He said employees at a North Dallas store called police when the robbery occurred about two weeks ago. The thieves hung the bats back on the wall and drove away. He said later that same day, a customer found a skirt full of bats from another location hidden under his car in the parking lot.

Griffis believes that this is a large criminal organization, also because locations in different states were attacked on the same day.

“The police tell us that what they probably do is this: They go to one, two or three stores a day and then to a UPS store or something like that. And then they send all the products to a central location for sale,” he said.

Thieves typically steal about a dozen bats per robbery. One of the largest robberies occurred at D-Bat Huntersville, where 17 bats were stolen.

The clubs stolen in each burglary cost between $300 and $500.

Griffis said criminals appear to have a clear idea of ​​which items will fetch the highest price.

“These clubs actually sell for a higher price on eBay or these auction sites than they do in our store because they’re hard to get and often only available in very, very few stores,” he said.

Griffis said he’s heard that major retailers like Academy Sports + Outdoors and Dick’s Sporting Goods have also suffered significant losses. Queen City News contacted the companies on Monday but did not receive a response.