Valuable Wayne Gretzky rookie card returned to Kelowna man years after theft

A Wayne Gretzky hockey card that could be worth a pretty penny has been returned to its rightful owner in Kelowna — seven years after it was stolen.

According to the RCMP, the card was among many vintage collectibles taken when a business was broken into and robbed in 2015.

Police say they worked “for years” on the investigation with no luck, the case eventually going cold.

In 2019, Mounties were called to reports of a suspicious vehicle. They say a man and woman were found inside a pick-up truck that was believed to be stolen. Investigators also found “an abundance of property” inside the truck.

The pair was arrested and the items were seized. Among them was a vintage 1979 Wayne Gretzky hockey card which was filed away and not examined until April of this year, as people working in the Kelowna RCMP detachment came across it.

Drawing a connection

Suspecting the potential value of the card to be high, they brought the collectible to RCMP officers’ attention. Cst. Rick Goodwin, who worked on the initial case in 2015, says he immediately drew a connection.

“When I learned there was a vintage hockey card in exhibits, I immediately remembered the investigation from 2015,” Goodwin recalled. “I dug up the details of the old file and was able to track down Mr. Moore. I was surprised to learn he still had my old business card I had given him years earlier.”

Ian Moore, to whom the card originally belonged, was able to identify the item without seeing it, giving Mounties “an exact description, including unique details that only the owner would know.”

An RCMP officer shakes a man's hand after a valuable Wayne Gretzky hockey card was returned to him years after it was stolen

A Kelowna man has been reunited with a valuable Wayne Gretzky rookie card that was stolen from a business in 2015. (Courtesy Kelowna RCMP)

Moore was finally reunited with the Gretzky card on April 26, 2022. He says he is grateful to officers for returning the stolen item after all these years.

The exact value of the card is not clear. There are a number of similar cards listed online for prices ranging from thousands of dollars to millions.

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