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War medals stolen from Big River legion exhibit

Nov 4, 2014 | 5:31 AM

Pieces of Canadian military history have been stolen from a Royal Canadian Legion Branch in Big River.

A set of medals from the First World War and an old knife were discovered missing on Saturday from a display box that was set in the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #136 in Big River.

Rob Warriner, vice-president of the branch, said the medals and knife in question were donated by a family who wanted to display their heritage proudly. The medals belonged to Sgt. Ivery Newton, from the Fort Garry Horse Regiment.

“This lady called me up and said she didn’t know what to do with this stuff, she had received it from her sister, her sister had just passed, it was the most significant stuff in our collection,” said Warriner. “She gave me a lot of stuff, pictures, and medals and the World War One uniform. We were lucky to have it.”

Warriner said the family is extremely upset by this loss.

“They can’t believe it,” said Warriner. “Why would anybody do that, why would they want them, they’re worth nothing, they’ve got his name on the side, engraved on the side of the medal.”

And Warriner is just as upset and frustrated.

“They mean nothing to anybody else except maybe a dollar value, I don’t know what to do I’m just so disgusted.”

He had added some Canadian Mint collectable coins to the exhibit, which were taken as well.

“The only thing that was taken was the newer money and these medals and that knife.”

The medals stolen were a 1914-1918 Victory Medal, a 1914-1918 War Medal and a Military Medal, the knife had been homemade using shell casings and was four to five inches long.

Warriner discovered the items were missing when he went to add an item to the exhibit.

“I had found another hat badge to put in there, I went to open it and I found the lock gone on the glass case, and when I opened the glass case up I noticed there was dust in there and where there was something sitting there was no dust,” said Warriner.

He added none of the doors in the hall appeared to have been disturbed, and he can’t figure out how the thief would have gotten in and out to steal the items.

Warriner said he doesn’t care about the coins, he just wants the donated items returned.

“All of my items that were in there might have cost me $300 dollars at the post office, nothing I can’t replace,” said Warriner. “The medals, the knife and anything to do with the World War veteran, those items are simply irreplaceable.”

The RCMP have now been involved and an investigation is underway, but meanwhile he has started his own investigation, scouring the internet to see if the medals surface for sale online.

“I’m on eBay right now checking and I’m finding a lot of medals that matches what we have,” said Warriner. “One of those medals is worth over $500 on eBay.”

If he could he’d replace the medals from his own pocket, he said.

“I’d gladly pay that, but those medals will mean nothing to the family and nothing to me, because they’re not his,” he said.  “They’re not our neighbour’s who lived here.”

Warriner is making a plea to the thief to return the items.

“It’s only on loan to the legion and it would be really nice if they would just return it somehow to me or to the legion, or to any legion member or to any person that would get it to the legion, I don’t care,” said Warriner.

“They can deal with it that way or they can deal with the police, I don’t care, as long as we were to get that collection back.” 

jbowler@panow.com

On Twitter: @journalistjim