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ST. LOUIS – A theft from a storage unit in downtown St. Louis ends with a twist fitting for a comic book.

“I was pretty heartbroken about it,” says Martin Casas.

3,000 of his comics were stolen out of his unit at Public Storage in downtown St. Louis.

“I collect them for sentimental purposes. I got this comic when my daughter was born or the month my wife and I got married or when my dad died when I was a kid or when I graduated. I have all of these really cool, and memories behind each one of them so did sting a lot,” he admits.

He reached out to other comic book shop owners and told his employees at Apotheosis Comics to be on the lookout for someone trying to sell these books but he knew the chances of finding them were slim.

“I get a phone call from one of my staff members and they said, ‘Hey, someone just brought in a box of comics. Do you want to come take a look at them?’ I said, ‘Sure.’ I’m just really depressed because I know they’re not going to be my books and I’ve been looking at the stupid boxes for a week,” he suspected.

The woman left the comics along with her name and phone number waiting on an appraisal.

But, the box they were in was what Casas noticed first.

“She wrote Captain America on the side of it and I was like ‘Oh, that’s my kid’s writing!’ Then I started looking and there were some notes I made on the side of the box and so I saw those and I knew that was mine. I was like if there’s one specific issue was in there this is my box of comics and I pull through the box and I pulled it out and I was like yeah these are mine,” he exclaims.

He says he called the police who set up a sting inside his store.

“It’s kind of ironic that Batman was glaring at her the entire time,” he jokes.

Like a comic book plot coming to life before his eyes.

“What they told me was that this is a group of people who are stealing and breaking into other storage units and they hit at least 20 or so in the region,” he says.

Fox 2 reached out to St. Louis Police for a comment but has not heard back.

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