MADISON (WKOW) — More than $10,000 in stolen jewelry and merchandise has been recovered after being submerged for months under a Madison creek.

The City of Madison Burglary Crimes Unit and City of Madison Engineers recovered the merchandise Tuesday from Starkweather Creek that had been stolen Jan. 28 from Burnie’s Rock Shop.

The items were inside a bag under four feet of water and mud, according to a city of Madison news release.

The suspect, Richard Lynch, told investigators that he had left the bag in a sewer outlet near a bridge over the creek.

Detective Tracie Jokala initially checked the site, but with the water high she enlisted the help of the city engineering department.

“They’ve helped us twice now,” Jokala said in a news release. “We had another case where we hoped to recover some bullet casings but didn’t end up finding them so this case was nice – it’s such a big win to recover these items for Burnie’s.”

Jokala said City Engineer Steve Mckenzie came out to the bridge in the 3000 block of East Washington Ave. along with other city staff who snaked a camera down the sewer outlet described by the suspect.

The bag was not visible at the end of the pipe, but Mckenzie put on waders and jumping in the creek to check by hand.

Using a flashlight he eventually located the small bag containing the stolen items exclaiming, “I got it!”

According to Jokala the merchandise was worth more than $10,000.