Beware

[JABIII]

This happens every year in NoDak, Arkansas, Canada and other places hunters travel to...

Gun thefts ruin hunting holiday

Janet French, The Ottawa Citizen

Published: Tuesday, October 10, 2006

A long-anticipated family hunting holiday turned sour for three American men on Sunday, when an estimated $9,000 US worth of their gear was stolen within 30 minutes of stepping a plane.

Chad Manlove, a Ducks Unlimited biologist from Madison, Miss., planned the hunting holiday for months with his brother, Lance, and father, Larry, who are both from Seaford, Del. At 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, Chad Manlove said the men left their gear in their rental truck for less than 10 minutes while buying supplies at the Wal-Mart at Confederation Park Mall.

"I only get to see them about twice a year," Chad said his brother and father. "This was going to be our annual gettogether.

"I hadn't hunted with either of them in about three or four years, so we were really looking forward to this." When they returned, the truck window was smashed and four guns, their hunting clothes, Larry's U.S. passport, electronic gadgets and credit cards were all gone.

Manlove, in a telephone interview from his home in Mississippi Monday, said the incident was "very unfortunate." "You arrive in a new country, and it hadn't been 15 minutes we'd been outside of the airport and this happened," he said. "We're standing there with nothing, pretty much dumbfounded." This trip was also Larry and Lance Manlove's fi rst time Canada, Chad Manlove said.

"It left a very poor impression with my father," he said. "He's not real excited about ever trying to return back to Canada. I'm not completely going to be run out of Canada. I want to try it again." Now, Manlove is asking for the public's help in recovering his family's belongings. The men had four shotguns in hard plastic cases that were stolen. Also missing are two large green duffel bags containing clothes, hip-waders, hats and other hunting gear.

Gone are two digital cameras, two pairs of binoculars, a videocamera, Chad's brand new GPS unit and Lance's electronic organizer and cellphone.

"A lot of that stuff you can replace, but a lot of it had sentimental and family value," Manlove said. "The gun my father had, my brother and I bought it for his 50th birthday 10 years ago.

Things like that are going to be hard to replace if we don't get those back." Manlove said he is willing to offer a small reward to anyone who can provide information that leads to the return of his family's belongings.

Along with the stolen gear, the men are also out $2,000 US for plane tickets for the disastrous trip. They also spent $400 hunting licences that were immediately pilfered from the truck.

"We had nothing left, so we had to leave," Manlove said. The men spent the night in a Saskatoon hotel, then fl ew back to the U.S. early Monday morning.

Manlove said he's spent the time he was supposed to be duck hunting cancelling credit cards and having copies of his car keys made instead.

"I never would have expected this to happen because I've always heard good things about hunting in Canada, and the people are so nice," he said.

"I felt bad," he added. "I sort of arranged this whole deal for my father and my brother to get on a good duck hunt and enjoy hanging out in Canada. Neither one of them had ever been. You don't ever hear about this kind of thing." Saskatoon police are asking anyone with information about the theft to call them at 975-8300 or Crime Stoppers at 931-8477.

jfrench@sp.canwest.com

[nitro5x6's]

I really despise theives.

What a world we live in.

If possible, leave one of your party in the rig.