Souvenirs Reported Missing : Investigations: Collectors complain that valuable memorabilia have not been returned after a Pasadena show in which sports celebrities said they were bilked.

While Pasadena police explored allegations that sports celebrities and small businessmen had been bilked by a recent sports memorabilia show, new complaints surfaced from collectors who said valuable baseball memorabilia had not been returned to them.

Pasadena police officials said Tuesday that they still had not been able to find Ernest Dent, the principal promoter of the “Baseball Legends” card and collectibles show staged at the Pasadena Center Sept. 7-9.

After the show--believed to be the largest of the increasingly popular memorabilia events ever staged in Southern California--several sports stars, including Mickey Mantle, Don Drysdale and Ernie Banks, claimed that checks they had been given for appearing at the show had bounced. Additionally, a number of business owners said they had not been paid for printing, travel, security and other services.

At the same time, Pasadena Police Detective Mark Hansen said, he had been receiving calls from collectors and hobbyists.

“They had sent memorabilia items to Baseball Legends in Glendale along with a check to have the stuff autographed and returned,” Hansen said. “None of it has been returned.”

He said those calls have been referred to the Glendale Police Department and that these complaints may eventually be forwarded to postal authorities.

Officer Mario Yagoda, Glendale police spokesman, said his department had received more than a dozen calls from businessmen and hobbyists.

“We are sending out fraud complaint evaluation forms to people calling us who feel they have been victimized,” he said. “When they return them we will determine if the supposed crime is a civil or criminal violation,” he said.

Jim Amormino, a public affairs officer with the Los Angeles Police Department, said he was missing a Mickey Mantle uniform with an estimated value of $1,500. Before the show, he had taken it to Dent’s office in Glendale and paid $65 to have the uniform signed by Mickey Mantle during his appearance.

“He (Dent) said ‘we’ll take care of it,’ ” Amormino recalled, but when he went to pick up the uniform two days after the show no one was at the office.

George Harris, an Agoura physician, claimed he had sent Baseball Legends a baseball, with an estimated value of $500, that had been signed by all of the 1966 Dodgers except Drysdale. He paid $18 to have Drysdale sign the ball when he attended the show.

He has not gotten the ball back, although his check was cashed, Harris said. “I’ve had it since I was a kid,” he added. “I’ve lost part of my childhood.”

At the request of Pasadena police, Yagoda said, Glendale officers had impounded a vehicle owned by Dent, parked at the Windsor Road townhouse where he lived, but it has not been seen for several days.

Several people who had had business contacts with Dent at Baseball Legends said he set up his Glendale office in the spring and primarily worked with two men, one named Rick Abbott and another whom some knew as Dee Whitten and others as Dee Lipscomb. Hansen said he was also seeking to speak to these men. Abbott and Dent told people they came from West Virginia.