There's been an outpouring of support in the comics community for Superman fan Mike Meyer these past few weeks after the 48-year-old mentally disabled man from Granite City, Ill. was robbed of a substantial portion of his massive collection of Superman comics and memorabilia after being tricked by an acquaintance he welcomed into his home. According to KMOV, supporters can begin to breathe a sigh of relief, however, as the process for truth, justice and the American way seems to be moving forward with the arrest of suspected thief Gerry Arville Armbruster and the recovery of Meyer's stolen items.

The 37-year-old Armbruster was actually arrested for an unrelated incident yesterday afternoon when Granite City Police responded to the robbery of a 76-year-old man, who allegedly received minor injuries from the suspect who robbed him of jewelry and cash. After his arrest, Armbruster was linked to the theft of Meyer's Superman items. This lead to the recovery and return of all of Meyer's items according to an official police statement.From the official Granite City police statement:

The residential burglary was reported on August 31st, 2011 and involved a large collection of Superman memorabilia. This incident took place at 2510 West 23rd, Granite City, IL

Yesterday afternoon, September 15th, 2011 the Granite City Police responded to a Robbery, at which time it was learned a 76 year old male was robbed of Jewelry and money while in the 1800 block of Delmar, Granite City, IL.

The victim was going to hire a male subject to clean up a vacant business in this block, when the subject forced the male's jewelry and money from him. During this incident the victim received some minor injuries. Based on his description, we learned the Madison Police Department was dealing with our suspect on an unrelated incident. Officers were able to link this subject to the robbery and he was transferred from Madison's custody to our custody.

With the ongoing investigation of the Residential Burglary, it was believed this was the same subject responsible for stealing the Superman items in August. Investigators were able to link the suspect to this crime as well and recover all of the victim's Superman memorabilia and return it to the owner.

Today, both cases were presented to the Madison County States Attorney at which time the suspect was charged with:

1 count Residential Burglary

1 count Robbery

1 Aggravated Battery (Senior Citizen)

Charged:

Gerry Arville Armbruster, M/W 37 years old

2214 Iowa street, Granite City, IL

Armbruster is currently at the Granite City Police Department and will be transferred to the Madison County Jail later this evening. His bond for all charges has been set at $100,000.00.

The statement seems to corroborate a comment ComicsAlliance received from a user in our original piece on Meyers last night:


With a suspect headed to jail and Meyer's collection not only restored, but apparently almost doubled by the donations of fellow Superman fans and supporters, this story has reached something of a Golden Age Superman story ending bolstered by modern social media.

"I felt very happy and felt justice was served," Meyer told STL Today this afternoon noting that he plans to give away excess donations to a charity or a children's hospital.

"People were generous to me; this is how I can be generous in return," Meyer told STL Today.

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