Klondikers pride ourselves on not needing to lock our doors every time we leave our houses. But sometimes we should, as events this week proved. But in this case, locking the doors wouldn’t have been enough.
This notice from Jesse Cooke (school teacher and Husky Bus owner) appeared on Facebook early in the week: “Stolen from Goldrush Campground in Dawson: 1970s two-tone beige small camper trailer. Just noticed, snow was cleared from around it a few weeks ago so it could have been anytime over the last few weeks. I would very much like to have it back. If anyone has seen it around please tell myself or the RCMP.”
My interest was piqued. Over the years we’ve had a few things stolen from around Chez Davidson. One year there was a shovel, which I found up the street a ways with our name right there on it. Then there was a ladder, which we didn’t find. Most recently, our spare gas can and the Rubbermaid tote it was stored in were stolen from the back of our truck.
The most serious theft, a few years ago, was our in-town car, a second hand Kia Rio that someone (we never did find out who) took for a joy ride and ran off the road and over a hill, driving up to the Midnight Dome. It was totalled.
On that particular night four other cars were broken into in a straight line that ended in the lane behind our house, but only at our place did they find where the extra set of keys was hidden.
A whole travel trailer though, that’s ambitious. It was interesting to watch the fl ow of conversation on several Facebook postings as people mobilized and began to hunt on behalf of a friend. Some posted they had seen it at various places and others just posted messages of support and commiseration.
It was the Facebook posse that found the missing trailer, abandoned on one of the mining roads heading out of town when the going got too tough for whatever vehicle the thieves were towing it with.
What did the thieves think they were going to do with it? Did they really think they could just park it somewhere out of sight, live in it for the summer, and have no one notice? Sure, finding summer accommodation in Dawson can be tough, but that’s no excuse for theft.
The initial posting had been at 8:03 a.m. and by 4:17 p.m. the Cooke family posted: “It has been recovered”. There hasn’t been any word yet on whether the culprits were tracked down, so perhaps we’ll just have to be cautious with our things for a little while.
