Net54baseball.com Forums - Collector Helps FBI Get Back Brady's Jerseys

This story just showed up on the web. I wondered how the FBI had traced these jerseys to Mexico. It's all thanks to a teenage collector.

Teenage Patriots fan helped FBI track down Brady's jerseys
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The FBI got help from an unusual source in their recovery of Tom Brady's Super Bowl jerseys in the form of Dylan Wagner, a 19-year-old New England Patriots fan and avid sports memorabilia collector from Seattle.

Wagner said he knew "exactly who had it" after hearing that not only had Brady's jersey from Super Bowl LI been stolen, but also the quarterback's one from the 2015 Super Bowl against the Seattle Seahawks.

"I was able to provide two addresses to search," Wagner told Cheryl Fiandaca of CBS Boston.

Wagner sold a jersey to Martin Mauricio Ortega, the credentialed member of the international media who stole Brady's jerseys, on eBay in December and the two exchanged photos of their collections - it was then that Wagner noticed something strange.

"He sent me 30 photos of his collection. Front and center was Tom Brady’s Super Bowl 49 Jersey. I asked him outright, 'How did you get that?' and he says 'I'll tell you later,'" Wagner explained.

Wagner sent the photos to his friend, Boston ATF Special Agent Christopher Arone, a fellow collector, and after news broke that the Super Bowl 49 jersey had also been stolen, Arone got the information sent to the FBI.

"(Arone) said the video doesn't prove anything. Without the photos I sent him they wouldn’t have been able to get a search warrant to go into Ortega's basement and get the jerseys," Wagner said recalling a conversation with the ATF agent.

"It's incredible. I wasn't sure they'd even get one, but to get both of them back. It's history, it really is," Wagner added.