People like to talk about how bad social media is for our mental health, but in Jefferson County, it appears to be good for something else entirely. Fox 6 News reports that law enforcement officials were able to use the internet to track down stolen property after the person who allegedly took it posted about it online.
According to the publication, everything happened after a small business in the Town of Jefferson, Wisconsin was broken into overnight on Aug. 12, 2026. Deputies told the outlet that several items were reported stolen at the time.
But instead of spending several days (or weeks) looking into what happened, deputies had a lead as soon as the next day when one of the items that had been reported stolen popped up for sale on an online marketplace.
Now, people are laughing at the entire situation and asking how anybody could’ve ever thought they would get away with such a brazen act.
A 26-Year-Old Man Is Charged With the Burglary
Watertown Daily Times reports that the stolen item popped up online on Aug. 14. Detectives immediately recognized the item and reached out to the seller to set up a meeting. The unnamed suspect arrived at the controlled meetup, where deputies took him into custody.
The outlet says that deputies then obtained a search warrant for his home, which led them to discover more of the stolen items. Watertown Daily Times says he is now facing multiple felony offenses.
People Didn’t Mince Words on Facebook
There was very little sympathy for the suspect on the Fox 6 News Facebook post about the story.
“The man should have an additional charge for extreme stupidity. Did he really think that LE wouldn’t check online sites?” one person wrote.
The lack of sympathy may stem from how rarely people recover stolen property. According to 2024 data that was analyzed in a 2026 Statista report (which appears to be the most recent data available), only 27.1 percent of stolen items are recovered in the U.S. And while some items have higher rates of recovery—for example, 51.4 percent of stolen cars are recovered—most items are never found.
Of course, that doesn’t appear to be the case for this Jefferson County story, which makes it uniquely good news for whichever business the suspect is accused of stealing from.