Police Use Craigslist to Find NFL Ring Stolen 30 Years Ago

Howard County Police said they have recovered a stolen 1958 NFL Baltimore Colts championship ring, after the former owner of the Elkridge Harley-Davidson attempted to sell it on Craigslist. 

Howard County Police received a tip about the stolen jewelry on Craigslist, according to a press release. Posing as a prospective buyer, officers called the seller and reached Charles Ice II.

After speaking with Ice, officers determined he was looking to make money after an Elkridge motorcycle dealership went out of business.

His wife, Katina Ice, owned the  dealership in Troy Hill. Mrs. Ice said that her former husband, the late Harry Edward Wehner, purchased the ring knowing it was stolen but believed its owner didn’t want it back, according to the police report.

“Now that the Harley business is gone, Mr. Ice needs money so he is selling the ring,” said the police report. The ring was being sold on Craigslist for $20,000, according to police.

The 1958 National Football League ring belonged to former Baltimore Colts defensive tackle Arthur J. Donovan. It was stolen when Donovan was on a trip in Japan in 1977, according to the police report.

In an interview in her Ellicott City home, Mrs. Ice told police that in the late 1990s, Wehner won $40,000 in Las Vegas and purchased the ring from an unknown seller for $15,000 in Curtis Bay.

The seller told Wehner it was stolen in Japan, said Ice. She told police that Wehner contacted Donovan but Donovan told him he didn’t want the ring back and that he had received an insurance payment for it.

Donovan’s insurance agent and former Colts teammate James Mutscheller told Detective Wade Zufall that there had not been any claim in connection with the ring. 

Upon interviewing Donovan in Towson on June 23, Zufall learned that the ring was stolen from a hotel room during a visit to Hong Kong. That was in 1977, said Donovan in the police report. He stated that he was not contacted about the ring until a Baltimore jeweler tried to get him to purchase it in the late 1980s/early 1990s.

“The jeweler said he wanted to broker a deal for the ring,” Donovan said in the police report. “However, Donovan told him that he was not going to pay for something that is rightfully his," said the report. "Donovan was never contacted again about the ring.”

As of Aug. 9, the manufacturer of the ring—which said that no replication of the mold was possible—determined that it matched the specifications of the ring designed for Donovan, said police.

No charges have been filed, said police spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn.