Reposted from the Salmon Arm Observer

Sometime last week a thief rolled away with two pieces of Princeton’s heritage – carriage wheels that have long been part of the outdoor display at the Princeton and District Museum.

A reward is being offered for information leading to the return of the bright red wheels, and museum board president George Elliott is puzzled.

“What was the point?” he asked in an interview with The Spotlight. “What message are you trying to get across? It really wasn’t a well executed plan to steal something so high profile.”

The wheels, which were chained to a railing, likely disappeared sometime between April 4 and April 5, and museum directors were tipped to their disappearance by a historical society volunteer.

Elliott admitted he hadn’t noticed they were gone, when he entered the building Thursday. “Well, you know how it is sometimes, when you walk by something 300 times.”

Elliott said he can’t imagine what someone would do with the stolen artifacts.

“It’s not likely someone is suddenly going to put it on Princeton Buy and Sell and you’re not going to see it in the Black Press [classifieds.]”

While RCMP have been contacted, Elliot said he is sure the board is more concerned with recovering the wheels than with punishing an offender.

The theft has also been reported on Facebook.

“The pressure is out there locally. If it was somebody local who chose to ‘borrow’ them and they would choose just as quietly to return them then everything would be done,” he said.

“If they were to anonymously show up on the front steps I don’t think we would be terribly upset. In fact I think we would be quite happy.”

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