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Massive jade boulder returns to Cache Creek store six months after daring heist

The 3,000-pound boulder was stolen on Dec. 19, 2020 and found abandoned in the bush a week later

The iconic jade boulder from the Cariboo Jade Shop in Cache Creek, which was stolen during a daring robbery on Dec. 19, 2020, is back on display at the store, but is now being kept safely inside.

The 3,000-pound jade boulder formerly sat outside the shop, where it was cemented in place. It had been at the Cariboo Jade Shop since 1985, and was a popular and much-loved landmark with locals and tourists alike.

Shortly before midnight on Dec. 19, two Ashcroft residents who were returning from Kamloops saw a pickup truck towing a flat-deck trailer with an excavator on it leaving the Jade Shop parking lot. They spotted the boulder on the flat-deck and pursued the truck, which was heading east on Highway 1 toward Kamloops.

The passenger called 9-1-1 to report the incident, and the driver ended the pursuit and turned around after a man thought to be associated with the theft threw a boulder at them near the Ghost of Walhachin pullout east of Cache Creek, damaging the vehicleB次元官网网址檚 windshield.

Police later determined that at 9:45 p.m. on Dec. 19 the pickup truck, trailer, and excavator were at a hotel parking lot next door to the Jade Shop. At approximately 11:05 p.m. a man was seen walking to the truck, which then drove to the Jade Shop, where the excavator was used to lift the jade boulder onto the trailer.

Heidi Roy, whose family owns the Cariboo Jade Shop and whose father Ben Roy purchased the boulder in 1985, says that the thieves were probably foiled by the fact that they were spotted in the act of driving away with the boulder, and the police were alerted immediately. She also credits the widespread media attention, which made people aware of the theft.

B次元官网网址淭he police set up a road check at Savona [west of Savona on Highway 1],B次元官网网址 she explains. To avoid it, the thieves turned off the highway onto Deadman-Vidette Road just west of the roadblock.

B次元官网网址淚 think they were probably panicking, because they knew theyB次元官网网址檇 been observed and police were en route, so they had to go off-script and think on the fly. They probably thought they were on a logging road, but Deadman-Vidette Road is quite heavily populated.B次元官网网址

A resident who lives 32km up the road spotted the truck turning around in front of his house at around 2 a.m. The empty trailer was found the next day at the bottom of Deadman-Vidette Road, and Roy and her mother Judy spent time over Christmas scouring the road for any signs of the excavator.

B次元官网网址淲e thought weB次元官网网址檇 have a better chance of finding a giant excavator than the boulder,B次元官网网址 she explains. B次元官网网址淔inding a rock in the woods would be hard.B次元官网网址

Their search paid off. They located the excavator, but had to drive 25 kilometres back to the highway to get cell service so they could call the police. When the police officer arrived, the pair were told that the RCMP had just received a call on their tip line from a local rancher.

B次元官网网址淗e was out moving cattle, and thought it was a hot tub cover near the side of the road,B次元官网网址 says Roy. B次元官网网址淗e was pretty annoyed, but then his wife said B次元官网网址業 think itB次元官网网址檚 that rock from Cache Creek.B次元官网网址橞次元官网网址

The boulder was intact, but had new chips top and bottom where it had been prised from its concrete base and then dropped during the theft. There was also a scratch on the face of the foot-thick boulder, which originally came from near Dease Lake and was once part of a much larger piece.

Asked what she thinks the thieves might have been planning to do with the boulder, Roy says she isnB次元官网网址檛 sure. Although the boulder is huge, it is of low quality jade with little commercial value.

B次元官网网址淏ased on the evidence, the thieves werenB次元官网网址檛 too smart, and I donB次元官网网址檛 think they thought long-term. The jade community is small, and thereB次元官网网址檚 not much of a market for it. We contacted our suppliers and let the port know to watch out for it.

B次元官网网址淪ome people speculated they might have planned to carve it up, but it took 200 hours to carve that piece out. You need special tools.B次元官网网址

She adds that while police have identified suspects, the Crown has said there is not enough evidence to press charges, so the case will not be going to court.

After the boulder was recovered it was put in a secure storage unit while its fate was discussed.

B次元官网网址淲e got a lot of armchair advice about how to secure it: put a cage over it, or chain it. We asked the RCMP how we could secure it, and they said we could have cameras all over the place, but the next person would be wearing a hoodie and have a mask and have the licence plates obscured. They said you canB次元官网网址檛 prevent someone who really wants to do it, so putting it outside was too risky.B次元官网网址

That left the option of putting it inside the shop, which meant trying to figure out how to manoeuvre a 3,000-pound slab of rock up some stairs and into the front window of the store, while hoping that it would fit through the door and that the floor would bear the weight.

B次元官网网址淚t took a lot of planning,B次元官网网址 says Roy. B次元官网网址淲e made a life-size cardboard cut-out for a dry run, then put plywood on the floor to reinforce it and moved all the showcases out of the way.B次元官网网址 Andy Anderson of Home Hardware in Ashcroft used his storeB次元官网网址檚 HIAB to bring the boulder from storage to the shop, then winch it onto a wood pallet so that it could be moved into place in one of the Jade Shop windows.

The boulder formerly stood on end, but now lies flat. B次元官网网址淲e couldnB次元官网网址檛 figure out how to prop it up so it wouldnB次元官网网址檛 fall over,B次元官网网址 says Roy. However, she adds that they wanted to put the boulder back on display.

B次元官网网址淪o many people were asking about it, and still are, and we wanted to have it accessible. And itB次元官网网址檚 not just locals who have been asking. The news media took the story so far and wide.B次元官网网址

The boulder has been cleaned and polished and is now back where it belongs for people to view once more.

B次元官网网址淧eople can come and see it again,B次元官网网址 says Roy. B次元官网网址淭hey can touch it and feel it and get an idea of its size. It came back on Wednesday [June 9] and people have been asking B次元官网网址業s that the stolen boulder?B次元官网网址橞次元官网网址



editorial@accjournal.ca

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Barbara Roden

About the Author: Barbara Roden

I joined Black Press in 2012 working the Circulation desk of the Ashcroft-Cache Creek Journal and edited the paper during the summers until February 2016.
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