Amateur Detective Led Cops to Brooklyn Suspect

An amateur sleuth on a personal mission helped crack the case of 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky and led cops to his suspected killer. Yaakov German, a 47-year-old property manager, traced Leiby's path from a day camp by convincing business owners and residents to let him inspect security camera footage that ended with the arrest of Levi Aron, reports the New York Daily News.

German, a father of 12, set out to find Leiby when he learned that the boy set out from a camp near German's home and that his son was Leiby's teacher. He followed the route he deduced Leiby had taken (eventually guessing correctly about a wrong turn) and searched for cameras that might have captured his image. He finally saw footage of Aron and Leiby together, and cops used the lead to make the arrest. "At the end of the day, [German] should be given the credit for the cracking of the case," says a representative for the NYPD Clergy Liaison Program. (More Leiby Kletzky stories.)