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Saint John mayor offers $500 for return of Harold Wright's historical artifacts

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Saint John Mayor Don Darling is offering $500 from his own pocket for the full recovery of artifacts stolen from a local popular historian.

In a Facebook post Friday, Wright said his storeroom was broken into, and "lots" of items were taken from it.

He said people in Saint John should be on the lookout for photos or negatives related to the city's history and for aviation artifacts. Not all of the collection was stolen.

Darling shared the post later on Friday, adding: "I will personally post a reward of $500.00 for the safe return of all his stolen goods."

Darling said by phone that he felt "sadness, disappointment, a little bit of disgust, a little bit of anger" after reading about the theft of the artifacts.

"Harold is just so passionate and has been, as I understand," Darling said. "His whole life been dedicated to preserving the history of this city.

"He's incredibly dedicated to military history in particular. … These are probably treasures to not only Harold but this community. And I guess I'm jumping to conclusions — someone's going to dump them in the woods or sell them for five bucks."

A reward

Darling said he added the $500 reward to put his money where he "hopes it will count."

"I'm calling on whoever did this to do the right thing," he said. "Don't just dump it in an alley, put it somewhere safe and call the police and say, 'Hey, I know where this stuff is.'"

In his original post, Wright said he has not been able to identify exactly what items are missing since it will take him the weekend to go through the collection.

Wright is known in the community for his public education on Saint John history.

Wright did not wish to comment on the matter.