A $10,000 Jetson Gilbert violin dating back to 1939 was in the cache of stolen items in an Esquimalt apartment suite uncovered by a pair of tech-savvy tourists determined to retrieve their stolen goods.
Victoria police said the valuable violin belongs to an 80-year-old Duncan woman. It was stolen from her car Aug. 8, after she returned from a seniors' centre where she had played.
The raid in the second storey suite at 611 Admirals Rd. Wednesday turned up boxes full of credit cards, laptops, cellphones, cameras, iPods, e-readers, guitars and gammahydroxybutyric acid, known as the date-rape drug.
Investigators are cataloguing the evidence to return items to their rightful owners. Police have not released the total value of stolen goods recovered.
Four people have been charged with possession of stolen property, break and enter and breach of probation. The accused are Natasha Day, 26, Nancy Klein, 39, Michael Merrick, 31, and Theodore Turko, 36.
Lacombe, Alta., resident Tanya Huether said about $4,000 worth of items - an iPad, laptop, camera lens and camera bag - were stolen after the home where she was staying in Saanich was broken into Aug. 13.
Her tech-savvy brother Steve Huether helped her track the iPad to the Esquimalt apartment using the Find My Friends app. Tanya Huether scoured the parking lot and saw her backpack in a car belonging to one of the alleged thieves.
Huether and friend Dale McCreery, who had a backpack stolen with valuable research for his master's degree, are still waiting to get their items back.
Both said they're glad their persistence led to the recovery of other people's valuables.
"I can't imagine having something like that [violin] stolen and how heartsick she must have felt," said Huether, who is back in Alberta, where she works as a university recruiter.
The building manager at 611 Admirals Rd. said the man and woman who lived in the suite are being evicted. [email protected]
