Fort Wayne Police are hoping a cell phone snapshot taken during the $50 sale of thousands of dollars worth of stolen tools will be the key to apprehending the suspected burglar-salesman.

Police were called to a Deister Machine Company shop at 1710 E. Berry St. just after 8 a.m. Oct. 12, when an employee arrived to find the shop had been rummaged through overnight and several items were missing, according to Officer Bobby Lemon's incident report.

The employee told Lemon all doors and windows throughout the shop were locked, and that he “did not know how anyone could have gotten inside (the) shop,” Lemon wrote.


The shop manager, however, told detectives a door could have been left unlocked, Glock said.


There were no signs of forced entry, Glock said, and losses totaled $3,278.

Hours later, police say a man showed up at the Sports & Spirits bar at 1723 E. Wayne St. – a block south of the shop – looking to pawn several tools marked “Deister,” according to Fort Wayne Police Sgt. Al Glock.

A bar patron, who Glock said has a friend employed with Deister, gave the man $50 for six of the tools valued at $2,420. Not before, however, he snapped a picture of the smiling man with his cell phone.

That photograph has been forwarded to the Fort Wayne Police Department, which has released it in hopes the public might help lead them to the suspected thief.