Kid who cracked case hopes QB calls
Dylan Wagner lives 3,000 miles away from the heart of Patriots Nation, but the Seattle teen helped solve one of the biggest heists in sports history when he led federal investigators to Tom Brady’s two stolen Super Bowl jerseys.
Dylan, a diehard Pats fan who was born in the Bay State but moved across the country with his family when he was 5, says Brady has always been his hero. He has yet to hear from the team or No. 12 in the wake of the media blitz sparked after news broke Tuesday night that he helped solve the case of the stolen jerseys.
But his fingers are crossed.
“It would be incredible,” Dylan said of meeting Brady. “It’s a dream of mine. It’s looking like now I might be able to actually do that.”
The teen does have one little favor to ask the star quarterback. “Bring me out to a game, man,” Dylan said yesterday during a call from Seattle. “I’ve never been.”
The story began in December, when Dylan, a sports memorabilia collector, sold Mexican media executive Martin Mauricio Ortega a 2012 Deion Branch jersey.
They were having problems with the transaction on eBay and ended up communicating and sharing photos of their collections through email. Ortega sent him more than two dozen photos that included Brady’s Super Bowl 49 jersey.
“As a jersey collector,” Dylan said, “everyone knows that’s the Holy Grail of all jerseys.”
But at that time, no one knew the jersey had been stolen.
Dylan sent photos of Brady’s 49 jersey to some other sports memorabilia friends, including a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Boston.
Then, the Patriots won the Super Bowl in February and Brady’s Super Bowl 51 jersey was stolen.
The ATF agent sent Dylan a link to a news article that said this wasn’t the first time Brady’s Super Bowl jersey had been stolen — his Super Bowl 49 jersey was stolen, too. Dylan sent his pal all the information he had about Ortega.
Dylan said an FBI agent contacted him and he sent the agent the two names Ortega used, Martin and Mauricio, as well as his email addresses.
On March 20, Dylan’s 19th birthday, the FBI agent called to tell him Brady’s two jerseys had been recovered. “I was speechless,” Dylan said. “I couldn’t believe that I helped the FBI crack one of the biggest sports thefts in history.”
Dylan said it made him happy to see Brady wearing the jersey he helped track down on Red Sox Opening Day on Monday.
“Growing up, Brady’s kind of been my hero,” Dylan said. “I think it’s OK to say that in this instance, I’m his hero.”