Stone griffin and 15 kayaks stolen in pair of bizarre Calgary thefts – Calgary | 24CA News
Michelle Cheverie and her husband obtained a 300-pound griffin statue as a marriage present eight years in the past. It proudly sat exterior their Cochrane, Alta., residence till they moved to Calgary two years in the past, the place it took up residence of their entrance yard.
“It’s a griffin that comes from my husband’s Celtic clan shield, so it did have some significance,” stated Cheverie. “It was chosen. It wasn’t just some random gift that was given to us.”
Cheverie says it has turn into a little bit of a fixture on her quiet road, with daycare youngsters stopping to pet it as they stroll by and her household adorning it for particular events. On Saturday, July 15, it was stolen from her yard.
“We heard nothing. Our camera faces a different way so we didn’t catch anything on camera. There were no tracks. It didn’t look like anybody had wheeled a dolly or anything up to the statue, but it definitely would have taken a few people,” stated Cheverie.
Cheverie posted the theft on the Nextdoor app, asking neighbours to maintain an eye fixed out for the bird-like statue. She stated it took off on social media, with individuals asking all kinds of questions.
“It became a bit of a joke… people (were) like: ‘Now we have to take our picnic table in at night,’ and: ‘Somebody’s going to take our fountain,’” defined Cheverie.
“If people are going to take a 300-pound statue, what’s safe?”
The statue has been returned. A neighbour discovered it deserted in a blue bin within the alley and contacted Cheverie to let her know the place it was. While Cheverie is grateful the griffin is again in its rightful spot, she does marvel why somebody would take it within the first place.
“It’s not somebody walking by thinking: ‘That looks cool. I’m going to take it.’ There was a plan behind this.”
It additionally seems there was a plan behind a theft on the opposite facet of city at a neighborhood business.
Staff at AQ Outdoors got here to work on Wednesday morning solely to search out that 15 to twenty kayaks used for coaching functions had been stolen from a safe storage space.
“They came in through Blackfoot Motocross and cut through their fence, cut through our fence and took the boats,” stated Simon Coward, director at AQ Outdoors.
“They parked 200 metres or so to the south in the food bank volunteer parking lot where’s there no video cameras, and we actually found little scraping of kayaks where they dragged them along.”
Coward stated the alternative value to AQ Outdoors is about $25,000, including every one would get between $800 and $1,500 on the resale market if they might discover a purchaser.
“We’re very involved in the paddle community,” stated Coward. “So, if they show up on Marketplace, we’ve got lots of eyes out there.”
Coward says it might be arduous to promote the used boats due to all of the paddlers in search of them. The battle will probably be getting via the busy summer season season and all of the programs scheduled whiteout them.
“The thing that has been pretty amazing is how many people have reached out to us and offered boats to us to use to get through our courses,” stated Coward.
“We’re essentially going to rent off a few organizations until the end of the season because the logistics of trying to get new kayaks up here… It’s going to take longer than we have.”
Coward has a easy message for the thieves seeking to offload the boats: “If you stole it, just bring it back. We might even give you a six pack of beer. I’d be really happy to get them back.”
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
