It's a happy ending to a shocking story.
Less than 72 hours after Hudson Bay Mountain reported more than $20,000 worth of equipment was stolen from their maintenance shed, all the items have now been found in good condition and returned to the mountain.
“The ski hill runs on a shoe-string budget. This was just such a big win. We're not a rich ski hill, and it was really great for the owners to get the snowmobile and all this stuff back,” said Chrissy Chapman, resort services manager. “It was a long night, but it was pretty awesome.”
According to Chapman, she received a tip on Thursday, Jan. 29 around 5:30 p.m. as to the whereabouts of the equipment.
“We got a tip that led myself to contact the RCMP,” she said, noting that the caller said the missing equipment was going to be moved that evening once it got dark.
The stolen equipment was located shortly after at a home in Smithers.
“We were able to get a picture [of the Ski-Doo] and I was able to identify from the back that it was our snowmobile. I provided the VIN number and the RCMP matched it,” she said, adding that the rest of the equipment was easy to identify because it was all labelled.
“We were able to get it back in my hands within an hour. All the tools, it looks like everything was recovered.”
Chapman said social media played a large part in helping them locate the equipment as well.
“We got the message out and asked people to share it and it got bigger and bigger and then I got the tip,” she said.
According to Cpl. Dave Tyreman with the RCMP, the investigation is still on-going.