Child's $60,000 cochlear implants recovered from car stolen in Surrey
Credit to Author: David Carrigg| Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2020 03:15:08 +0000
Extra effort from a Surrey RCMP officer helped locate a little girl’s stolen cochlear implants on Monday.
Dan Matheson, father of five-year-old Annie, said he received a call on Monday afternoon from Sgt. Mike Spencer of the Guildford Fleetwood community response unit.
Spencer had read the report in Monday’s The Province about the theft of Annie’s cochlear implant’s sound processors. Annie, her mother Caryn and sisters Mae and Lucy, went to the Guildford Recreation Centre on Saturday morning for Annie’s weekly swim lesson.
In an admittedly “foolish move”, Caryn put the family’s gym bags in a locker but did not lock it because it was jammed and she was in a hurry.
Sure enough, when they got back from their swim, the bags were gone, including Caryn’s wallet, car keys, cellphone and Annie’s sound $60,000 sound processors.
Their car was also stolen.
Matheson said Spencer had worked in vehicle theft before and took a special interest in the case. He looked into recent reports and determined the family’s 2014 Mazda 5 had just been located outside a home in Surrey.
“It had been used in a string of criminal activity in Burnaby and Delta and in Surrey,” Matheson said. “Apparently it had been used in a robbery at a liquor store.”
Sgt. Mike Spencer, of the Surrey RCMP.
Spencer looked through file of evidence taken from the stolen car and saw “headphones.”
“He called one of the officers and said ‘are they headphones or a hearing device?’” Matheson said.
The officer told Spencer that they were definitely earphones, so Spencer asked the officer to check the car again.
“He found the cochlear implants in the car and they were sent to (Spencer) right away,” Matheson said. “I just drove there now and they are in good shape. It’s amazing, incredible.
“The cop said this was unheard off. Usually if an item is not useful to that person, it is tossed, if it’s useful it’s sold.”
Matheson said the sound processors would need to be cleaned, but expected Annie to be hearing again soon. The family also communicate with sign language.
The car has been impounded and will be returned to the family in about a week.
Annie is one of about 300 children in B.C. who have had cochlear implant surgery. Annie had hers at age three after getting a late diagnosis that she was profoundly deaf. The implant processors are worn all day and taken off for sleeping or any time in the water.