Ucluelet RCMP return woman’s stolen items decades after theft

VANCOUVER – More than 30 years after she was robbed on Vancouver Island, a Kamloops resident is getting some personal belongings back.

Last Thursday a worker in Pacific Rim National Park found an old plastic bundle of IDs. He turned it in to the Ucluelet RCMP detachment.

The items appeared to be quite old but Sgt. Jeff Swann knew he had to try and find the owner.

“Originally, before we had the ID in our hand, we only had a name,” he said via email. “We just searched the database records and found that she had an Alberta driver’s licence that expired in the 80s. I then used that info to locate her now in Kamloops.”

Turns out the owner, who is now in her 80s, was travelling in the park in the late 1970s when her purse was stolen.

A $100 dollar bill was missing from the bundle, but Swann said the officers and staff at the detachment decided to make sure the woman got that back.

“Immediately and without hesitation, the office staff, members, and guards from the detachment donated the money,” he said.

Purolator has agreed to get the package to the Kamloops RCMP where one of their officers delivered it to the owner today.

Swann’s wife also started a social media campaign to send a care package to the woman to send along with her missing items.

“The local community was contacted and has also reached out to provide many West Coast themed gifts for this senior citizen,” said Swann.

“Very typical of this giving and generous town.”