NHL news: Stolen Gretzky rookie card found in B.C.
It took a number of years, however a stolen hockey card seemingly price fairly a bit of cash has lastly been returned to the sufferer of a housebreaking.
The cardboard that includes Canadian hockey legend Wayne Gretzky when he was simply beginning his profession was amongst a number of classic playing cards stolen throughout a break-in in Kelowna, B.C., in 2015.
The 1979 Edmonton Oilers rookie card that includes The Nice One disappeared together with different gadgets stolen from a house on Byland Street, and though the case was underneath investigation by Kelowna RCMP for years, there have been few leads for police to comply with.
The RCMP detachment stated in a information launch outlining the sequence of occasions Tuesday that the investigation finally went chilly.
“There have been no additional investigative avenues to be taken,” the RCMP stated.
That’s, till 2019, when police obtained one other name.
Officers have been dispatched to Boyce Crescent, additionally in Kelowna, for experiences of a suspicious automobile. They discovered a person and a girl on the scene, seated inside what was believed to be a stolen pickup truck.
Additionally contained in the truck, in keeping with the RCMP, was an “abundance” of things allegedly stolen from a residence. The person and girl have been arrested for being in possession of property obtained by crime, the RCMP stated, and the gadgets have been saved as displays on the Kelowna detachment.
Wedged in with the remainder of the gadgets was the Gretzky card.
The cardboard was saved away for a while, however this 12 months, because the proof was being disposed of, it drew the eye of RCMP personnel.
The RCMP stated these workers members realized the worth, did some analysis, then talked about it to officers with the detachment.
That card was acquainted to at least one officer particularly: Const. Rick Goodwin, who’d labored the unique case.
Goodwin stated in an RCMP information launch that he’d considered the 2015 break-in as quickly as he heard concerning the classic hockey card saved amongst different displays.
“I dug up the main points of the previous file and was capable of monitor down (the unique proprietor). I used to be shocked to be taught he nonetheless had my previous enterprise card I had given him years earlier,” Goodwin stated.
The proprietor, Ian Moore, got here in to the station and was capable of describe the cardboard he’d as soon as had, “together with distinctive particulars that solely the proprietor would know,” the RCMP stated.
Moore even had information and paperwork he’d held on to regardless of the theft, exhibiting that he did personal the cardboard.
Police returned the cardboard to a grateful Moore, who stated he was impressed by the constable who’d labored his case years in the past and nonetheless remembered it.
The RCMP didn’t present an estimated worth for the cardboard, but it surely may very well be price a whole bunch of 1000’s, if not thousands and thousands, relying on the situation.
The Canadian Press reported on a rookie card promoting for C$1.29 million at public sale in 2020, and on one other that bought final 12 months for a record-breaking US$3.75 million.
A Gretzky card with some imperfections bought for US$465,000 in 2016, and a number of other are listed on eBay for between C$7,705 and $59,000.
