A sister and brother were understandably emotional on Friday morning when police reunited them with their father’s First World War medals that had been stolen 25 years ago.
York Regional Police recently found the medals belonging to Robert P. McNay as part of an investigation dubbed Project Spider-Man. The investigation resulted in the arrest of a Bradford father of two, who scaled GTA homes like Spider-Man and robbed homes of jewelry, watches and cash worth in the millions.
The accused, Shane Gagnon, 43, allegedly used flexible spy-cams and parabolic listening devices to enter homes through skylights and second-storey windows to avoid detection, and now faces at least 31 counts of break and entering offences.
He was arrested during a routine traffic stop on Jan. 31, for failing to stop at a stop sign.
On Friday, McNay’s medals were returned to his adult children, Donna Crawford and Ken McNay. The veteran had won the medals in 1919 for his service in Russia.
“It’s amazing. My dad would be so pleased with that,” said Crawford, whose father died in 1982.
“It’s amazing. The diligence of these men is unbelievable,” her brother said, commending the police for their work.
Over the course of several weeks, an officer found Crawford using a site dedicated to the Canadian Siberian expedition forces on which she had posted years earlier about the missing medals. The officer then found her contact info through the transportation ministry and phoned her to let her know that police had recovered the medals.
Police are still trying to return dozens of items to their rightful owners and have posted images of the stolen goods online. Click here to see them.