Sunday afternoon, a man who was traveling on a MAX train from Portland International Airport to Hillsboro, accidentally dropped his backpack as he got off the train at the Beaverton Transit Center. Surveillance video later showed a woman, identified as 34-year-old Dawn Castro of Beaverton, retrieving the fallen backpack withing seconds of it being dropped. Instead of making any attempt to locate the owner of the backpack, or turn it into authorities, Castro kept the backpack and its contents.
Inside the backpack were rare sports trading cards, including those of Mickey Mantle, Joe Montana, Michael Jordan, and Kobe Bryant, as well as valuable jewelry. Dawn Castro proceeded to pawn some of the jewelry at a local pawn shop but kept the more valuable items, including the Mickey Mantle card, which was valued at close to $5,000.00.
The victim reported the theft to the Beaverton Police Department, and detectives promptly took on the case. After finding the stolen memorabilia on Facebook marketplace, the victim and Beaverton Police Detectives arranged a meeting with Dawn Castro to purchase the stolen trading cards.
At approximately 12:08 PM today, July 8, 2024, Beaverton Police Detectives successfully met and arrested Castro at the Beaverton Transit Center, the site of the original theft. In Castro’s possession were all the stolen trading cards the victim had lost the day before. Detectives were also able to locate the stolen jewelry at the local pawn shop and have arranged for it to be returned to the victim.
Given the significant value of the stolen property in this case, Castro is being charged with Aggravated Theft in the 1st Degree.
Source: Beaverton Police