When thieves broke into a storage locker in the parking lot of Langley’s Otter Co-op shortly before 3 a.m. on Sunday morning, they made off with a valuable barbecue.
With six burners, the stainless steel contraption is so big, it needs to be pulled behind a car. Sold new, it’s worth about $11,000.
The co-op’s cameras captured the barbecue being hauled away in a white van with a broken right tail light.
The loss is a significant one for both the co-op and the local community. The stolen barbecue is one of two the organization has been loaning out to local charities for fundraisers since 2008, Otter Co-op Controller Richard Bonneau said.
In the summer months, the barbecues go out to charities a few times a week and up to twice a day on weekends, he added.
The Otter Co-op is asking for the public’s assistance in tracking down the stolen barbecue, which can be identified by its Otter Co-op logo.
“We’re hoping that with the amount of members that we have and the people that see this story, we hope that we’ll get the barbecue back,” Bonneau said.
If the co-op is unable to recover the barbecue, it will purchase a new one that would arrive in eight to 10 weeks, just in time for spring fundraisers.
“We’ll still carry on. It’s part of our nature. We support the communities we live in as co-ops,” Bonneau said.