Guilty pleas in theft of Ripken sculpture

BALTIMORE, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- Three more young men have pleaded guilty in Baltimore to charges they helped steal a statue dedicated to former Orioles baseball star Cal Ripken Jr.

Gary Parker, 20, Matthew Rayner, 20, and Patrick Reynolds, 18, each pleaded guilty Friday in Baltimore Circuit Court to one count of conspiracy to commit theft of over $500 for the Sept. 8 heist of the sculpture outside Camden Yards, The Baltimore Sun reported Saturday.

The three men each received two years of unsupervised probation and community service. A fourth defendant Jason Stoneburner, 19, received the same sentence after pleading guilty Wednesday to taking part in the theft of the aluminum No. 8 statue of the Orioles great.

The four men are also required to pay the $1,904.50 in repair costs for the 3 1/2-foot statue, which they kicked down and drove through Baltimore in the back of a pickup truck.

"When you and I were young, this was a prank. We're living in different times now," attorney John Grason Turnbull III, who represents Reynolds, told the Sun after Friday's hearing.