News

Teen praised for helping recover stolen Tom Brady Super Bowl jerseys

BOSTON — A 19-year-old from Seattle is getting praised for helping recover Tom Brady’s two stolen Super Bowl Jerseys.

Dylan Wagner said last December he was exchanging photos with another sports memorabilia collector when he noticed something unique.

“Front and center in his collection is a Tom Brady jersey,” Wagner said.

That jersey was from Super Bowl XLIX when the Patriots beat the Seahawks, but what Wagner didn't know at the time was that it was stolen.

Just a few weeks after the exchange, The Patriots played in Super Bowl LI and won their fifth Lombardi Trophy.

“Shortly after the game the NFL posted on their Twitter account just a small clip of Brady saying ‘Hey, I think somebody took my jersey,’” Wagner recalled.

Wagner has a friend in Boston who happens to be an ATF agent. They communicated about Brady's stolen jersey and when the friend sent Wagner an ESPN article he had the revelation.

“It said that this isn't the first time this has happened, it happened versus the Seahawks in the Super Bowl as well. And I was like ‘no way, are you serious right now? I know the guy who has it,’” he said.

Wagner started calling authorities but got no response. Not from Houston Police, not from the NFL, not even from the Patriots.

“They didn't take me seriously. They didn't take my name, phone number, anything about me down,” he said.

But in desperation, Wagner contacted the Texas Rangers and finally got a response.

“Within the hour they called me back. They were like ‘you know what you've got is some real information there,’” he said.

That information led to the recovery of Brady's missing jersey in at the home of Mauricio Martin Ortega in Mexico, the same guy who sent Wagner photos of his collection months earlier.

“After such a great comeback and Super Bowl victory, you kind of have to respect what they did. And it stinks that somebody would ever try to steal such an historic piece of memorabilia,” Wagner said.