Couple Charged In Beanie Baby Fraud -- One Victim Hocked Cars Worth $10,000 To Pay For The Famous Collectibles

MEDINA, Ohio - They wanted Garcia the Bear, Radar the Bat and Tabasco the Bull.

Instead, people in 12 states lost more than $70,000 they paid to a Medina couple in hopes of getting rare versions of Beanie Babies, the stuffed toys that have become rare collectibles, according to police.

Eldred M. Proctor, 58, and Arlene R. Proctor, 55, managers of a small Medina motel, were arrested this week and charged in the scheme.

"One woman hocked two cars without telling her husband, so she could send $10,000 for a dozen Beanie Babies," said Medina police detective James Bigam.

Bigam would not release the names of any of the more than 70 alleged victims, scattered across the country.

"Their lives are torn up over the lost money. They're embarrassed that they were taken in," he said.

According to Bigam, the Proctors had run ads since June in newspapers across the country, offering Beanie Babies for $15 to $50 each.

The ads read: "Have cancer, must sacrifice. Have 20 each of every Beanie ever made (2,690) in original condition. Contact Rev. Ted Proctor."

It gave a fax number and the mailing address for the Medina Motel, where the Proctors work.

Bigam said Proctor never had any of the Beanie Babies he claimed to have, including high-priced "retired and mutant" varieties of the small stuffed animals.

Retired Beanies are those no longer being manufactured. Mutant ones have manufacturing flaws.

"Retiring them drives up the price people will pay for them. It creates the collector craze," said Bigam.

The woman who sold her cars to fund the purchase was to receive a dozen of the rarer Babies, Bigam said.

"Another woman sent $8,300. Two other women made me promise to never call them about the case at home, only at work so their husbands wouldn't find out," he said.

The Ty Corp. in Oak Brook, Ill., makes Beanie Babies. Company spokeswoman Anne Nickels had not heard about the Proctors when contacted earlier this week.

"We're aware of another scam at a shopping mall," she said. Someone set up a kiosk business selling coupons for Beanie Babies that were to arrive within a few weeks.

By then, the kiosk vendor had disappeared.

Police first learned of the Proctors' alleged activities when "victims started calling the police station to complain about not receiving their orders."

The Proctors were each charged Monday with five felony thefts and one misdemeanor theft.