Gary Brenner doesn’t collect typical things. Instead of baseball cards, pocketknives or antiques, the Carpentersville resident searches for law enforcement memorabilia such as badges, ambulance lights and fire engine sirens.

Then there’s his prized John Dillinger collection, which includes a personalized Cook County Highway Patrol badge for Lt. Edward Weber, who was wounded in a shootout with the Dillinger gang in Evergreen Park in 1933.

Over the years, the machinist has spent more than $20,000 on items, and he has at least 125 law enforcement badges, as well as miscellaneous lights and sirens from fire engines, police cars and ambulances.