He stuffed Tom Brady into a canvas bag, and then hung precious goods around his neck.

On the red-eye flight from Southern California to New Jersey, he wore a sweatshirt over the top of his neck pocket to hide Tom Brady from the passengers, where he would find out whether Brady was worth all of this anxiety.

Attorney Jeff Korinko said he was very nervous during that flight. Brady was hidden in his shirt. He was worried that his sweat would seep into his neck pocket and hurt the greatest quarterback of all time.

In September, a man named Jim Brown (not the Jim Brown) in Southern California found a very valuable Tom Brady football card in a dusty cardboard box.

Brown’s discovery also triggered a series of events that will reveal the life of a troubled Army veteran driving a tank in Iraq, and eventually touch the hearts of a girl’s family who has never had a chance to meet her father.

More specifically, what Jim Brown found was a Leaf Mirror Gold Tom Brady rookie football card, one of 35, with a score of 8.5, almost intact, and probably a little more valuable than the money on the neck.

Mirror Gold Brady will be auctioned by New Jersey sports memorabilia auction house Lelands starting on Sunday. The auction will last until December 11. Potential buyers must create an account on the Lelands website, have two recommendation letters from other auction houses to participate, and they must have bank documents proving that they have at least $100,000 ready to spend.

The starting price is expected to be between US$15,000 and US$20,000, and the bid may be very high.

"We expect this to be huge," said Jordan Gilroy, Leland's acquisition director.

The last three Brady cards auctioned by Lelands (they had Brady's autographs, and the newly discovered cards did not) brought a total of $6.1 million to their owners.

When a big payday became apparent, Jim Brown said his thoughts turned to one place.

"I must find the kid who sells the card to me," Brown said. "He is the only one who really appreciates this story."

Brown didn't know that the child's story would become more important than the card itself.

This child is a man named Mike.

"He has blonde hair and a baby face," said Brown, a 68-year-old arson investigator. "He looks like he just got off the skateboard."

Mike Mittrick opened a card shop in Brea, California when he was 22 years old. He called this place 52 Mantle, named after the 1952 Mickey Mantle Topps baseball card, which is the holy grail for many collectors. Mitric is the only employee in his shop. He works 7 days a week.

One day in 1992, when Jim Brown saw the sign: 52 Mantle Sports Cards, he had already completed the investigation of the Brea fire.

Brown had never collected cards, but something forced him into the store. 

Brown has an idea. He will buy several boxes of cards for about US$35 each, and donate some of them to the nearby Orangewood Children's Home. 

Brown introduced himself to Mitrick, then 23, and they quickly got along well. Mitrick opened the carton Brown bought and set aside the pair he thought would be valuable someday. He put those in a box to Brown. The rest of Brown donated to Orangewood.

For eight years, Brown has been returning to the store in the same way. He would joke with Mitric about the sports and souvenir business. Brown will buy a few boxes of newly issued cards. They will select a few cards and put them aside, and the rest will be donated to children’s organizations around Orange County.

By 2000, Brown paid $100 for each box of cards. He said he thought he had donated about 40 boxes of cards in the eight years. He kept six boxes of "valuable" cards for himself.

Brown said that these cards were not the reason he kept going back. He said he likes to hang out with the kids behind the counter.

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By 2000, this child was 31 years old. He is about to start a family. Within a few years, Mitrik married one of his clients, a single mother named Stacey, who knew him like Brown. She will take her son to 52 Mantle to buy Yu-Gi-Oh cards (Japanese game cards with combat characters).

Mitric organized a Yu-Gi-Oh match in the alley behind the store. He will make plaques for the winners. Stacey said that when she saw Mitrick making the children happy, she fell in love with him.

Many years later, Mitric and Stacey will have a daughter. But this is already ahead.

Brown remembers when he last entered 52 Mantle. He told Mitrick that he was moving to San Clemente, which would take him far from Bray Asia. For the sake of old times, Brown wants to buy another box.

They opened the last box, and Mitrik noticed something strange.

"He saw a glimmer of light," Brown said.

A card is really dazzling, a Ye Jinjing rookie card. "You got one of the lucky ones," Mitrik told him.

The player on the card is Tom Brady. Jim Brown didn't know who he was. Brady was a sixth-round draft pick for the University of Michigan, and he has never played in an NFL game.

"He may not be able to get out of the training camp," Mitrik said.

But this card is one of only 35 cards. 

Mitrick immediately wrapped the card in plastic. Brown said he suggested that if the card is so rare, Mitric should try to sell it in the store.

"No, keep going," Mitrick said.

Brown put the card in a box and said goodbye to his friend.

Jim Brown realized that his name added an element to the story. The famous Jim Brown played for the Cleveland Browns, and his rookie card is also a treasure of collectors.

This is about fire inspector Jim Brown. He never touched the card he got from 52 Mantle. They have been sitting in cardboard boxes for more than 20 years.

A few years ago, his wife Carmen told him that she had finished moving these boxes. So Brown moved them to the evidence cabinet in his San Clemente office. He has never opened the box, nor has he sold any cards he bought from 52 Mantle's children.

In September, while sitting at his desk looking at the computer, he noticed a news headline: Tom Brady rookie card sold for $3.1 million.

Wait, he thought, don't I have a rookie card for Tom Brady?

He said that Mirror Gold Brady was in the second box he opened.

He called his friend, lawyer Jeff Kolinko, who contacted Leland.

"Jeff sent me a picture of the card, and I thought,'Gosh,'" said Jordan Gilroy of Leylands. "We need to classify it and put it on the market."

At that moment, Colinke and Brady had red eyes in his neck pouch. He rented a car in Newark and drove to Matavan, New Jersey. It was a Sunday morning, and he handed Brady's business card to Gilroy.

"That was when I was most excited," Gilroy said.

It turns out that this Brady card "is one of the top cards in the world," Gilroy said.

However, after returning to California, Jim Brown was in trouble.

He couldn't remember the name of the child who sold the card to him, who told him that the card was valuable, and who told him to "hold on."

Brown wants to give the child some money. Two days later, he found him in the middle of the night: Mike.

Brown searches for "Mike Sports Card Brea" on Google. He found Mike Mitterick.

At this moment, he found his obituary.

Mitrick and Stacey married in 2003. They had a daughter Megan in 2004.

His wife and daughter didn't know what kind of trouble he had. Mitrick served in the military from 1987 to 1991. During Operation Desert Storm, he drove a tank in Iraq.

"When he came back, he was different," Stacey's father John Sennikov said. "The things he was involved in were really important to him."

In March 2008, Mitrik told Sennikov that he would see his daughter for the last time.

Sennikov did not understand. The credit card business is doing very well. Mitrick has a wonderful marriage and a beautiful toddler.

The next day, on March 20, Mike Mittrick ended his life. The child is 39 years old.

In 2008, Mitric was one of 6,216 American veterans who committed suicide. That is an average of 17 per day.

"I didn't see any signs," Stacey said.

When Jim Brown heard this story, he broke down and burst into tears. He decided to use some money to help Megan go to college.

"I want to give Mike something," he said. "I have to pay first."

Megan is now a fourth-year student at Brea-Olinda High School where her father is. She has very little memory of her father. She wants to go to New York University or Pace University in New York.

He called Stacey and Megan to tell them about the card, how he got it, and he might make some money soon. He told them he wanted to give them something.

"I have tears in my eyes," Stacey said. "Is there really such a good person? What an amazing person. He gave us so generous things. We are grateful for everything, even if it's just for her car money to drive to college."

Neither Stacey nor Meghan could name the team that Tom Brady played for. They don't know who his wife is, and they don't know anything about him.

Sennikov said Brown’s generosity is a sign of a better angel in our universe.

"Mike is coming back from the grave to help his daughter," Sennikov said.

Jim Brown doesn't know how much this card can sell, but he knows that the part he gets will be donated to Megan.

"The fate of this card is to help that girl," Brown said.

Contact Keith Sharon at 615-406-1594 or ksharon@tennessean.com or Twitter @KeithSharonTN.