This is the American Greed Podcast presented by CNBC. I'm Stacy Kich.

In this episode of American Greed,

RICO Vendetti's lucrative online stolen goods operation is exposed

when he hires the wrong delinquent to do his dirty work.

Their scheme is to steal an elderly man's valuable comic book collection turns deadly.

He kept saying my collection, my collection, it's gone.

He was somebody who lost his life just for money.

Day has yet to break on July 5th, 2010 in the upstate village of Medina, New York.

An elderly man is going door to door, banging and begging for help.

Medina police officer Todd Draper is working the overnight shift

when his phone rings.

You know, when your wife calls you and says, if somebody's pounding our door, our dog's barking,

she's worried she doesn't know what's going on.

So she was able to look out the window and she was pretty sure it was Homer and she was pretty sure something was wrong.

Draper rushes home to find his neighbor 77 year old Homer Marciniac

outside in his underwear dis, and dripping blood.

You can immediately tell he'd been the victim of a crime.

He had a cut on his lip that was pretty severe.

He said somebody had been in his house.

Officer Draper and police chief Jose Avila called for an ambulance.

We questioned him as quickly as we possibly could,

and that's when I learned that he had a comic book

...