Ian Moore holds his 1979 Wayne Gretzky hockey card next to Const. Rick Goodwin of Kelowna RCMP.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Kelowna RCMP
May 03, 2022 - 12:12 PM
Ian Moore's vintage Wayne Gretzky rookie card was stolen in a break-in seven years ago, but it wasn't found until years after the investigation was closed.
RCMP Const. Rick Goodwin was working in West Kelowna when he responded to a break and enter on Byland Road in 2015. Among the things that were stolen were vintage hockey cards, but the investigation went cold after police exhausted their leads.
Years later, Kelowna RCMP found an "abundance" of stolen property in a suspicious truck on Boyce Crescent. A man and a woman were arrested during the 2019 investigation for possessing stolen property, according to a Kelowna RCMP news release.
Police seized everything suspected to be stolen and held it as evidence at the Kelowna RCMP detachment, including a 1979 Wayne Gretzky hockey card.
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It wasn't until earlier this month that RCMP were clearing the exhibit area and the hockey card was found again. After discovering its value, staff pleaded among officers to look for the card's owner.
“When I learned there was a vintage hockey card in exhibits, I immediately remembered the investigation from 2015,” Const. Goodwin said in the release. “I dug-up the details of the old file and was able to track down Mr. Moore. I was surprised to learn he still had my old business card I had given him years earlier."
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Moore went to the detachment and detailed an exact description of the card before police showed him the one they held, according to the release.
On April 26, police finally returned the card to Moore after he both identified the card and showed documents that proved his ownership.
“I am very impressed by the efforts made by Const. Goodwin, the work he put into this investigation and how he remembered the theft of my hockey cards after so many years,” Moore said in the release.
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