A custom hoist stolen from a former fitness trainer has now been recovered but a rebuild will be required.
Mike Hamill’s special custom hoist was stolen from his parkade in Ladner two weeks ago.
It was found in an alley in Surrey but was stripped by thieves.
“I think we can rebuild it,” Hamill told Global News. “I think that it was super exciting for me. It kind of blew me away we didn’t think we’d ever get it back.”
Hamill’s friends spent years and almost $10,000 building it, which would have enabled him to get back out on the water and fish.
This was a favourite pastime of the former trainer before he was left a paraplegic in 2017 after his fishing boat hit a humpback whale in Haida Gwaii.
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Before his accident, Hamill worked as a trainer, even attracting celebrity clients such as Clint Eastwood and Tom Berenger.
But above all, he loved fishing.
“That was my pastime to really enjoy myself,” he said. “Get out to the ocean, get out to the river — just the freedom of boating when you get out there.”
On June 25, 2017, Hamill and two friends had just finished four days of fishing and were headed back to their lodge when their boat hit a humpback whale that was breaching just outside Naden Harbour.
“We were sitting facing the captain at the bow of the boat when there was this hard hit. A wham,” Hamill told Global News in 2017.
“I went straight up and did a flip in the air, came down and ended up as part of the console of the boat.”
Hamill said he will now spend time with his friends rebuilding the hoist so it will be bigger and better and they will make it available for others to use.
Friends have also started a GoFundMe to help build a replacement.
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