By ERIC C. RODENBERG
AntiqueWeek Associate Editor

A trio of antique shoppers left merchants in northern Indiana and southern Michigan quizzically scratching their heads during the first week of May.
From May 5-7, the three shoppers put tens of thousands of dollars worth of antiques on hold at the shops, with the promise that they would be back the next day to pay in cash. The trouble was, they never returned.

One of the first shops they visited was The Antique Market in Michigan City, where they rounded up nearly $30,000 in antiques.

“They said, please get it ready, we’ll be back tomorrow with the cash,” manager Kyra Niegos said. “They didn’t ask for discounts, or attempt to bargain at all.”

The three – two men and a woman – were in the store no longer than 20 minutes. They left their names, showed identification and gave Niegos phone numbers.

No money was passed. No antiques left the store. The mall’s accountant Ida R. Koch worked for “at least two-and-a-half hours” gathering up their purchases after they left. Niegos put in at least as much work.

When they called the woman, identified as Liz, to give her the total, the buyer said, “no problem, see you tomorrow when you open.”

“They were very purpose-driven, I can tell you that,” Koch said. “The woman did most of the talking … she kept saying ‘money was no object.’ She seemed to be the leader; the one in charge.”

The two men gave the story they were brothers. They said they had flown into the area on their private jet, that they had just inherited lots of money from a grandfather who was in the oil business. They said they had two houses in Florida that were empty, and they were filling them with antiques.
One of the men purported to be a doctor, Niegos said, adding that he appeared to be in his early 50s. His name was Sid, she said. The younger man – who was identified as Anthony Carbone was described to be in his late 30s.
From there, the trio moved to Plain & Fancy Antiques, in La Porte, Ind., where they quickly ordered up more than $6,000 in antiques.

“I have a fairly small shop, and they just flitted through here,” says owner Lorie Sensow. “They didn’t strike me as ‘antiquing people,’ and many of the things they ordered didn’t match. But, they were nice, polite; they were very pleasant.”

Again, they told the owner they would be back the next day with cash.
At the Coachman Antique Mall, also in La Porte, the trio put together a two-page list, with “the girl doing all the ordering,” said owner Gloria Bell. There they had amassed $13,500 in antiques. They said they would return the next day to pay.

Back in Michigan the trio frequented several more shops and malls including the Harbart Antique Mall in Harbart, Mich., where manager Debbie Honeycutt said they racked up nearly $20,000 in sales within 10 minutes. Again, the buyers promised to return with the cash.

“I have no clue what they’re up to,” Honeycutt said. “What could be the motive? I asked them what they were doing up here in Michigan and the girl said, ‘they’re no antique malls in Florida.’ Well, I know better than that … they must be playing some kind of game.”

None of the shops reported anything stolen. “I thought maybe they might be scoping us out,” says Niegos from The Antique Market in Michigan City. “But, that doesn’t make any sense … they were certainly high profile.”
Several shop and mall owners called police to report the suspicious behavior; however, no laws were broken. Little harm was done, according to owners, besides time wasted and extra work.

The woman was identified by AntiqueWeek as Liz Davis, 22, a senior at Notre Dame, majoring in pre-medical psychology. She maintains she was “taken in” by the pair of men.

“I met Anthony about 12 weeks ago, and you could say he swept me off my feet,” Davis says. “I thought he was a very nice guy, who was finishing up his medical degree. All the orders (at the shops) were placed under, what I thought was the truth. I thought he had the money, but things started falling apart. He doesn’t have any money.”

Davis, from Tacoma, Wash., said she was looking forward to leaving South Bend, Ind., for home. “I just want to get out of here,” she says, “cut my losses and leave.”

Davis says she was bilked out of $2,200 by Carbone. “And, that’s a lot of money to me. I have a restraining order against him, and I have reported it to the (Notre Dame) police.”

David Chapman, assistant director of Notre Dame Security Police, would not comment. “Notre Dame is a private institution, and I can neither confirm nor deny any report,” he said.

No restraining order has been issued by a Liz Davis in the St. Joseph County courts, according to officials.

Anthony Carbone did not return several phone calls on the phone number he had given to shop owners.