An Ottawa man, arrested after fencing stolen antique beer cans on eBay, was sentenced to prison Thursday in the courtroom of Circuit Judge Cynthia Raccuglia,

Joseph J. Kelly, 45, 210 Prairie St., pleaded guilty to burglary charges and was sentenced to eight years in prison and two years of mandatory supervised release.

He also was ordered to pay more than $5,000 in restitution and was credited for 264 days spent in county lockup.

The valuable can collection, many from the 1930s and '40s, was stolen in November of 2008 from a rented storage shed at B&B Enterprises, 1051 38th St., Peru, and later sold to a third party who put some of them up for auction on eBay on the Internet.

According to Peru police, longtime collector Mike Cusick noticed it was his own rare empties for sale while searching through eBay in January. He then contacted a family member who checked the storage shed and confirmed the robbery. Following computer connection leads from eBay, police searched an Ottawa address and recovered nearly the entire collection.

Police did recover some of the collection from people who won Internet bids.

Ottawa police, the Livingston County Sheriff's Office and Illinois Department of Corrections also assisted in the investigation.

Kelly currently is in custody in Livingston County on an unrelated charge of burglary.