It’s been almost a year since owners Travis and Danielle Wiebe showed up for work at 88 Carats Co. only to find the place ransacked and around $300,000 in valuable merchandise missing. It was a first for this couple after 26 years in the jewellery business.
Eleven months later, the thieves are still at large and the Wiebes say they’re no closer to charges being laid.
It’s not that they don’t harbour suspicions. The day after the burglary, on April 16, the couple posted videos online describing the crime and pleading for the public to reach out to the RCMP regarding suspicious activity they might have witnessed the night before.
They received some feedback which seemed to match with evidence they’d found in the store and on their own video surveillance. They hired a private investigator to dig for more.
Local businesses and the town were willing to turn over footage from their neighbouring surveillance systems. Unfortunately, that footage wasn’t clear enough for the police to use.
There were no fingerprints left behind, although there were muddy footprints both inside and outside the store.
“The RCMP were great to talk to, but their resources were obviously tapped out,” Travis says.
In the end, the evidence they collected pointing at certain individuals wasn’t substantial enough to warrant the RCMP taking them in for questioning.
According to Corporal Mèlanie Roussel, media relations officer for the RCMP, the police can’t act without being able to demonstrate reasonable suspicion.
“The officers did what they could at the time,” Roussel says. “We’re not giving up. It’s still ongoing. Hopefully we’ll have people with evidence still come forward.”
Anyone with information, great or small, is asked to contact the Niverville or St. Pierre-Jolys RCMP detachment or Crime Stoppers.
The Wiebes are confident, based on evidence left behind after the theft, that more than one perpetrator was involved in the heist.
The theft proved to be a rude awakening for the couple, who have since invested an additional $25,000 in security. They advise other businessowners to do the same. The more tangible evidence you can provide to police, they say, the more likely criminals can be caught and convicted.
“All these cop shows on TV leave us feeling like police are able to investigate into things and that they have access to super technology to find perpetrators,” says Travis. “And they probably do, but their hands get tied up by legalities.”
Travis says he still maintains the same level of respect for the RCMP as before. He was encouraged to hear from an officer who says he’d checked the treads in a shoe store while out shopping with his wife, hoping to find a match for the footprints they had on file.
At this stage, the Wiebes aren’t fooling themselves into believing they’ll ever see the stolen items again. Still, a crime was committed, and they’re concerned about similar thefts and local vulnerabilities.
For this reason, the Wiebes continue to offer a $25,000 reward to anyone who reports evidence that can lead to a conviction.
In the meantime, the couple has been able to pick up the pieces and move on, but at great personal cost. The customers and suppliers who lost jewellery in the heist have all been compensated. 88 Carats continues to thrive with a consistent and steady customer base. They have since onboarded their son, who is training as a goldsmith.