When you're a Major League Baseball star it's hard to keep track of everything going on in your life. Which is why one might hire a personal assistant to help keep track of schedules, errands, and even boats. Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Bronson Arroyo, a former Golden Glove winner and Key West native, hired his friend since childhood Anthony Acosta as his assistant.
However, Acosta allegedly acquired a nasty drug addiction and sold Arroyo's boat to someone in Opa-locka behind the star player's back.
Back in 2009, Arroyo and Acosta were close friends. The pitcher was playing for the Cincinnati Reds at the time, and a local newspaper article at the time said the two even lived together on a boat during the six weeks of spring training.
In 2012, Arroyo was forced to fire Acosta due to a drug addiction. He did provide him a healthy severance package but asked his old friend not to contact him again.
Acosta did contact Arroyo in 2013 to say that the pitcher's $167,000 boat, then stored at a marina near Tampa Bay, had sunk. Acosta somehow still had access to the boat and quoted higher repair costs than were needed in an attempt to milk money out of Arroyo and keep the extra for himself.
Acosta then moved the boat to a storage facility Opa-locka and sold it for just $22,000. He forged a bill of sale and fraudulently put Arroyo's signature on the document.
However, the new owner, the father of the Opa-locka storage facility owner, discovered in 2010 that there was a $100,000 tax lien on the boat, so he decided to contact Arroyo.
Arroyo was obviously surprised to find that his boat had even been sold in the first place. A warrant was put out for Acosta's arrest in Miami-Dade County, and yesterday he was picked up in the Tampa Bay area. He's being held on $50,000 bond.