How teenage Patriots fan cracked case of Brady’s missing jersey
DON’T send the FBI to do a teenager’s job. This is the real story about how Tom Brady’s stolen Super Bowl jersey was found.
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DON’T send the police to do a teenager’s job.
The international mystery of “Jerseygate” was unlocked by a teenage sports memorabilia fanatic — and Patriots super-fan — who gave the FBI the tip that brought Tom Brady’s Super Bowl LI jersey back to New England.
Dylan Wagner, 19, has a passion for sports memorabilia, especially game-worn jerseys. Within that hobby, Wagner told CBS Boston, he learned exactly who had Brady’s memorabilia once he heard that a previous Brady jersey, from Super Bowl XLIX, also had been stolen, two years before Brady’s 2017 missing jersey captivated the world.
According to the report, the Seattle-based Pats fan gave the FBI two specific addresses to search after an eBay transaction last December led to his learning of the “hot” jerseys. After Wagner sold Martin Mauricio Ortega a jersey online, the two showed off their collections to each other by providing photos of their most sought-after pieces.
Wagner told CBS what stood out when he saw the pictures: “He sent me 30 photos of his collection. Front and centre was Tom Brady’s Super Bowl XLIX Jersey. I asked him outright, ‘How did you get that’ and he says, ‘I’ll tell you later.’”
At that time, it was not publicly known the jersey from the 2015 Super Bowl was missing. Wagner shared these photos with other collectors, one who happened to be an ATF special agent named Christopher Arone.
When Brady revealed to the media that his most recent Super Bowl jersey had been lifted, Arone reached out to Wagner with an article stating this was not the first time a jersey of Brady’s has been stolen after a Super Bowl.
Wagner responded by sharing Ortega’s photos again with Arone, this time including Ortega’s contact information and “two addresses,” which the Boston-based ATF agent handed over to the FBI.
Wagner was astonished by his findings — a treasure trove of memorabilia, some stolen, in Mexico.
“I couldn’t believe this guy would have the audacity to go in and steal something that someone worked so hard for,” Wagner told CBS.
Ortega, a member of the international media, was videotaped leaving the locker room after the Super Bowl. It appeared he had something tucked under his arm, but Arone said the video alone would not prove anything; without Wagner’s photos of Ortega’s collection, the FBI would not have been able to obtain the search warrant needed to root around in Ortega’s home.
Wagner was ecstatic when he heard the jerseys were discovered.
— dylan wagner (@Dylan_Swaggner) April 1, 2017
“It’s incredible. I wasn’t sure they’d even get one, but to get both of them back (is great),” he said. “It’s history, it really is. … I would love to meet Brady one day, hopefully. It would be a dream come true. I’m just really glad he got his jerseys back.”
It’s history and irony — a Pats fan from Seattle cracking a case that no one else could.
Originally published as How teenage Patriots fan cracked case of Brady’s missing jersey
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