Collector’s Barbie Dolls Found Intact After Theft
As flashbulbs popped, Glen Offield caressed the long, blond ponytail of one of his treasures.
On came bright television lights. He smoothed the wrinkles in her one-piece pink bathing suit. He adjusted her glitter sunglasses to catch the light. He fidgeted with the snake-charm bracelet on her left wrist and with her straw purse.
He pointed her toes, clad in cork wedgies, and set her gracefully on a stand. His 1961 ponytailed Barbie, an original, was back. So were the other 5,000 Barbies, $1 million worth. The police had found his entire collection jammed into an Old Town storage locker. And Offield was joyous.
“When I saw this, I’m like, I’m numb,” Offield said Monday afternoon, sifting through the 37 cardboard boxes that held his collection. “I’ve got them back!”
The dolls had been stolen two weeks ago from Offield’s Normal Heights home in what was perhaps the largest Barbie heist in the nation’s history. None of the dolls were insured. The four-bedroom home had been torched by two fires in an apparent cover-up of the theft, authorities said.
Offield’s collection includes every single piece of Barbie paraphernalia made between 1959 and 1972, including about 200 prototype dolls. It includes Barbie, Ken, Skipper, Francie and Christie--technically, Barbies all. Each is in mint condition, Offield said.
Offield, 42, an unemployed art director, said he was known worldwide for his collection.
He lent his dolls to their manufacturer, Mattel, for promotions. His dolls modeled for Mattel’s Barbie trading cards. Three years ago, 15 of his dolls appeared on the cover of Smithsonian magazine, a picture that proved so popular the Smithsonian created a museum poster featuring 31 of Offield’s fanciful Barbies.
“Picture yourself coming home and having your wife and children burned up in a fire,” Offield said Monday. After coming home from a weekend doll show in Los Angeles to find the charred house, “that’s how I felt.”
“But now I’m really, really happy,” Offield said, showing off two more Barbies for the cameras, one doll from 1963, another from 1962 with what he said was a Jackie Kennedy-inspired hairdo. “I can’t even express myself. It’s back. I have it all back.”
Police were led to the dolls after the apparent suicide Saturday of a man Offield once worked with, who had emerged as the chief suspect in the theft. “We’re not sure why he took the dolls,” Police Sgt. Mike Lodge said. “We’re not really sure.”
However, saying the investigation could lead to other suspects, Lodge declined to identify the dead man or provide many details. He said detectives had “been looking at this gentleman for a week” and served a search warrant last week at his Ocean Beach house.
The county medical examiner’s office identified the dead man as Scott Sloggett, 41. He was found dead at 8:45 a.m. Saturday in his home, apparently from a drug overdose, according to the medical examiner’s office.
Sloggett and Offield had briefly been partners in a business, Another Video Co., on El Cajon Boulevard, a source who knows both men said. It was not clear why Sloggett would have stolen the dolls, the source said.
Offield said Monday afternoon that he knew nothing about anyone’s suicide. He also said he had no idea who stole the dolls. “I don’t know anybody who had it in for me,” he said. “I don’t know that I want to know.”
Lodge declined to say who had rented the locker. Jim Daly, the manager of the business, said police had the records identifying the renter.
The dolls--packed in boxes advertising a moving company, bottled water and cherries--were jammed into the 6-foot-high locker, floor-to-ceiling around an old yellow refrigerator.
