A massive jade boulder that went missing from outside a shop in Cache Creek, B.C. has been recovered.
The Cariboo Jade & Gift Shoppe said someone took off with the 30-centimetre-thick boulder, which weighs nearly 1,300 kilograms, earlier this month.
According to the shop, the stone was last seen in an older-model two-tone grey/blue Dodge pickup truck. The vehicle was towing a flat deck trailer with an orange excavator with a small, wide bucket, and was headed in the direction of Kamloops.
Heidi Roy of the Cariboo Jade & Gift Shoppe said the boulder was spotted by an alert Good Samaritan who recognized it from the publicity the theft received and contacted RCMP.
A photo provided by Roy shows the jade slab covered in dirt, lying in a tangle of brush and snow in the location she says it was found.
“We are so happy to have it back in one piece, although with a few scars from its adventure,” Roy said.
Roy says the metre-wide slab has been displayed in front of the gift shop since she bought the store in 1985, and while it’s become a tourist attraction, it is low-grade jade and worthless as semi-precious stone.
Roy is thanking people who sent words of encouragement from across the country, saying it’s clear “this stone meant a lot to many more than we realized.”
— With files from Simon Little and The Canadian Press
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