Man Goes Online To Find Items Stolen From His Home

LABADIE, Missouri (KSDK) -- A man who lives in rural Labadie in Franklin County helped sheriff's deputies track down the man who burglarized his home last week.

The homeowner, who prefers to only use his first name fearing the suspect's buddies might retaliate, said he lost a guitar and cameras and a guitar monitor.

Jessie gave it some thought and decided to check eBay and Craigslist to see if anyone had his stuff for sale; and bingo, there it was. Jessie found his favorite guitar and a digital camera for sale on eBay, offered by a resale shop in Jefferson County.

Jessie did plenty of research on the Internet and provided the information to the Franklin County Sheriff's Office. They did the real detective work and found some of Jessie's stuff at the resale shop in Imperial and the rest of his belongings at a nearby pawnshop.

Fortunately, the suspect, identified as Joshua Rahlfs of Perryville, was required to hand over identification to the stores where he allegedly peddled the goods. The store owners handed over the ID and within hours, Rahlfs was in police custody.

Franklin County Sheriff Gary Toelke said his deputies encourage victims to snoop around, since they are more familiar with their property than deputies.

The Rahlfs is also suspected of burglarizing a residence in Jefferson County hours after he broke into Jessie's house.

While Jessie has his stuff back, he had to buy it back from the pawnshop. The store owner there charged him $75 to get his stuff out of hock. He said that made him feel like a victim a second time.

NewsChannel 5 called the pawnshop to find out why Jessie was charged, but the store had already closed for the day.