We’re not sure the lead character in this story qualifies as a brainiac, but he did – at various times – have more brains than the rest of us. Literally!

We’ve all heard the stories of the drug addicts desperate for cash, but this fellow opted for a different fork in the road when he decided against the high road. The 21-year-old Indianapolis resident broke into the Indiana Medical History museum on more than one occasion. And what does your savvy and street-wise burglar steal after breaking into a museum of this sort? Brains, of course!

One has to imagine that there must have been items more easy to sell inside the museum than preserved human brains from patients who were once residents at the Central State Hospital. Between 1948 and 1994 the facility housed psychiatric patients, some of whom obviously donated their bodies to science.

In a strange twist, the burglar decided to pass the ill-gotten brains to a middle man who put them up for sale on the auction website eBay. eBay once again proved itself to be the perfect place to unload unusual items that one cannot easily unload on the street. A buyer in San Diego, CA seemed eager to purchase the brains and shelled out nearly $700 to buy the stolen medical specimens. He became suspicious when he noticed labels on the containers the brains were stored in and called the museum to inquire about their origin.

Indianapolis police set up a sting operation after tracking down the middle man and apprehended the burglar after the middle man agreed to cooperate and arrange a meeting with the burglar.

Fortunately for the museum, the buyer returned the specimens to the museum where they were returned to their rightful place among the museums other artifacts.

Apparently the collective brain power the burglar placed himself in the vicinity of did not rub off on him since the simple act of removing the labels from the containers probably would have kept him out of jail.

As for the brain buyer, well, he simply described himself as someone who likes to collect odd things. We shall not argue with him.