Police: Stolen Ravens Tickets Lead to Door Kick-in Burglaries Arrests

Police have arrested and charged a man and a woman they said they believe were involved in a string of daytime door kick-in burglaries throughout Howard County after tracking the suspects using a pair of stolen Baltimore Ravens tickets.

Police said Joseph Leo Baumgarten, 40, of Pasadena, and Dianna Marketti, 30, of Dundalk, were charged early Friday with committing four burglaries, but police said they may have been involved with 10 additional cases.

In each incident, the suspect or suspects would kick in a door, work their way to the master bedroom, ransack it and steal jewelry and other valuables, police said.

Baumgarten and Marketti were arrested at a traffic stop Thursday night. They were charged with first-, third- and fourth-degree burglary, theft and malicious destruction of property.

Ravens tickets that the suspects reportedly stole from a house in Ellicott City on Sept. 24 were ultimately their undoing, said police.

The tickets led police to the Ravens game in Baltimore on Sept. 27. At the game, police asked the people sitting in the seats where they got the tickets. One person sitting in them said he ran a sports memorabilia shop and someone named Dianna Marketti had come into the shop and sold him the tickets, according to police.

Using Marketti's name, police said they discovered she drove a blue PT Cruiser.

A neighbor in a Sept. 26 burglary in Ellicott City reported seeing a dark-colored PT Cruiser in the victim's driveway the day of the crime, according to police. The car was also seen by a neighbor in the driveway of a Columbia home that was burglarized on Sept. 24, police said.

In addition, Marketti and Baumgarten were reportedly caught on camera at a pawn shop selling stolen merchandise from the burglaries, said police.

Besides the video, detectives said they had confirmed Baumgarten had allegedly sold stolen property from the burglaries to various pawn shops in recent days.

The four burglaries the two are charged with occurred on Sept. 12 in Woodbine, two on Sept. 24 in Ellicott City and Columbia, and a Sept. 26 burglary in Ellicott City, police said.

After a string of 10 door kick-in burglaries over three days throughout Howard County at the beginning of last week, police urged residents to be vigilant. On Thursday, police said no other burglaries had occurred since the announcement was made.

Mugshots of the two suspects will not be released by police until the investigation into 10 other similar cases is completed, said police spokesperson Sherry Llewellyn.

Related Articles

• Police Investigating Connection Between Door Smashing Burglaries
• Daytime Door Kick-In Burglaries Prompt Police Warning
• Crime Comment: 'I Have to Hide My Belongings in My Own Home'
• Daytime Door Kick-in Burglaries Cease; Investigation Continues

Sign up for the Columbia Patch newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Twitter for instant news updates and community conversations.