An Onalaska man faces multiple charges, including burglary, after the victim of a break-in last week cracked his own case.

Ross T. Brandau, 20, of 301 Locust St., was charged Tuesday with burglary, which is a Class F felony, misdemeanor theft and criminal damage to property in connection with a burglary on the 700 block of Kane St. in La Crosse. He is charged as a repeat offender and also faces charges of bail jumping and possession of drug paraphernalia.

The burglary was reported Feb. 7 by a man who had been in jail at the time of the break-in. He told La Crosse police that somebody had ripped a screen and forced open the door of his house before taking his Nintendo Wii videogame, a Guitar Hero controller, a DVD player, a cable box, a backpack and a small safe containing a dictionary with $400 inside it.

According to the complaint, after he had filed the complaint the man “began to think about who might know he was in jail and would want to burglarize him.” The man thought of Brandau and went to his house in Onalaska.

The man looked through the window and saw the items stolen from him on the floor inside the house. He tapped on the window and saw Brandau inside, but Brandau would not let him in, so the man called the police, according to the complaint.

When Onalaska police arrived, Brandau came outside holding the man’s backpack and containing some of the stolen merchandise. The other item, the Guitar Hero controller, was found later in a search of Brandau’s home, along with a marijuana grinder, the complaint said.

At the time of his arrest, Brandau was free on a $1,000 signature bond pending marijuana possession charges in Monroe County.