A Penticton teen is relieved after discovering the thieves who rummaged through his locker at the community centre pool didn’t make off with his hearing aids.
Dante Boileau, 17, was at the pool on Monday with a friend and when they returned to their locker the pair discovered it had been pillaged by thieves. A few hours later they got a phone call from a community centre staff member who searched the area for the stolen items and found shoes with the hearing aids stashed inside.
“I thought they were completely gone for good and I was going to have to go get a new pair. I was so relieved,” said Boileau, who had to miss a day of school because he couldn’t attend without the hearing aids. “I’m going to have a lot of homework to catch up on.”
The top-of-the-line hearing aids are worth $5,000 and were recently given to Boileau from a sponsorship through the Variety Club. Boileau said they chose the family change room to store their items because they did not have a lock and figured that would be the last place a thief would look.
“It was just dirty thieves,” said Boileau.
Unfortunately his friend, Wyatt Munro, wasn’t so lucky. A necklace given to him by his grandfather just days earlier is still missing.
“His grandfather is very ill and passing away and just the day before his grandfather took the chain off his neck and gave it to Wyatt,” said Boileau’s mother Crystal.
Also stolen was a backpack that had Dante’s wallet, hat and cellphone stored inside. Chuck Loewen, general manager recreation of the City of Penticton, said they have provided RCMP with whatever they could as far as video surveillance in hopes they can catch the thieves. He reminds the public that there is an option for community centre users to pay a quarter to secure their locker or they can use their own lock.