The BC Lions may have scored a victory on the field Saturday night — edging out the Toronto Argonauts by a field goal on home turf — but the team’s celebration was short-lived.
“My back passenger window was broken,” team offensive coordinator Jarious Jackson tells Global News. “And my bag was stolen out of the car.”
Jackson, a former CFL quarterback who now works in a coaching capacity with the BC Lions, left his marked team vehicle parked in downtown Vancouver after Saturday’s game at BC Place.
The Nissan Rogue, white in colour, donning the distinctive team logo on the front, was parked near the intersection of Howe and Nelson streets as Jackson and others celebrated inside Doolin’s Irish Pub. When Jackson left the establishment, just before midnight, he immediately noticed something amiss: one of the vehicle’s back windows had been shattered, and some of the league veteran’s most valuable possessions had been taken.
“It was my computer and my hard drive. Those are the main two things that I’ve used every day since I became a coach in 2013,” Jackson says. “It’s like having, you know, a woman’s purse stolen.”
Jackson, who is an American citizen, also had his passport and his work permit stolen, along with thousands of hours of video footage that he uses as part of the coaching process with BC Lions players. Five years worth of footage, collected over the course of hundreds of games played across the league, was stored on those hard drives that are now missing. It’s considered invaluable, and irreplaceable, to Jackson and the team, but would likely have minimal resale value on the streets, or among the general public.
“You always have that information that you can go back and pull from, in order to prepare for the upcoming opponent,” Jackson explains. “That information is not going to be important to whoever has it. But, for myself, that’s the key to being an offensive coordinator.”
WATCH: BC Lions coach Jarious Jackson says some extremely valuable items were stolen from his car over the weekend.
That’s why the BC Lions are now putting forward a cash reward for the safe return of the stolen belongings, offering $1,000 to anyone who punts the items back in the team’s direction — no questions asked. Jackson insists that, although the team has reported the theft to the Vancouver Police and is working with the department to recover his items, he’s not looking to press charges.
“I just want to retrieve my belongings,” he maintains. “You know, we’ll get the window fixed. We’ll get everything taken care of. I’m not looking to put anybody in jail. I just want my belongings back.”
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of the stolen goods is asked to call the Vancouver Police Department’s non-emergency line at 604-717-3321.