'Start of something special': Riders use garbage bag day to reflect on 2024
Nov 11, 2024
The locker room was full of optimism for the future of the organization on Sunday.
Some of the hockey memorabilia reported stolen last April in the Shellbrook area has been recovered.
The RCMP said about $100,000 worth of memorabilia — much of it signed by Wayne Gretzky — was stolen between November of 2021 and March of 2022 from a storage container on a farm near Shellbrook.
According to the Mounties, their investigation led officers to execute a search warrant Saturday at a house in Shellbrook. The search found about three-quarters of the stolen items, as well as other things that had been reported stolen to police, including a snowmobile, a trailer and a pickup truck.
In a paNOW story from last April, the items taken from Aron Gratias included 19 signed Gretzky jerseys, large pictures and paintings (all with serial numbers), sticks, pucks in display cases that were also autographed, and close to 10,000 hockey cards — 2,200 of which were of Gretzky. Some were autographed.
There was a framed Gretzky rookie card, figurines, plates, helmets, masks and skates. Autographed Sidney Crosby memorabilia was also taken, along with Joe Sakic and Joe Thornton jerseys.
On Thursday, the RCMP said some of the memorabilia is still missing. Officers don’t know what that entails, so they’re continuing their investigation.
“We began investigating this theft nearly a year ago and given the prevalence of online ‘buy and sell’ sales, we didn’t know for sure if any of the stolen memorabilia items would be recovered,” Staff Sgt. Shannon Haggarty, the commanding officer of the Shellbrook/Ahtahkakoop RCMP detachment, said in a statement.
“This is an excellent example of how investigations take time to complete. It was continued, dedicated efforts on the part of RCMP investigators that resulted in charges laid and ultimately, items recovered from multiple different theft investigations.”
A 41-year-old man from Shellbrook has been charged with possession of stolen property obtained by crime over $5,000. He’s to appear in Shellbrook Provincial Court on April 4.