A 19-year-old sports memorabilia collector and "lifelong Patriots fan" played a crucial part in helping investigators find quarterback Tom Brady's stolen Super Bowl jerseys.

Brady originally announced his Super Bowl 51 jersey was missing in the locker room after the team's Super Bowl win over the Atlanta Falcons in February. The FBI got involved and found out it and another one of his Super Bowl jerseys -- from the Patriots' win over the Seattle Seahawks two years earlier -- were stolen.

But last December, Dylan Wagner, from Seattle, remembered seeing a photo of the jersey. According to WCVB, after Wagner sold another jersey to Mexican media executive Martin Mauricio Ortega on eBay, the two exchanged photos of their collections.

Wagner was amazed but didn't know the jersey was stolen, mostly because it wasn't a known fact until the second jersey was stolen.

"Right at the front of his collection, he had the Tom Super Bowl 49 jersey," Wagner told WCVB. "I thought that was crazy, and I asked him how he got it, and he said, 'It was a long story,' and he would tell me later."

Wagner had also shared the photos with another collector and friend, Boston ATF Special Agent Christopher Arone.

But, again, it wasn't until Brady spoke about the second missing jersey that anyone knew the first was gone. Once the news broke, the two contacted the FBI, according to WBZ.

Ortega was seen on video leaving the locker room after the Super Bowl with something tucked under his arm. But, Wagner told WBZ, they wouldn't have been able to get a search warrant without the photos because "the video doesn't prove anything."

The two jerseys have been discovered and returned to Brady. And Wagner is really glad his "hero" gets his jerseys back and hopes he'll get to meet him one day.

"I would love to meet Brady one day, hopefully. It would be a dream come true," Wagner told WBZ.