Man who stopped collecting after his Gretzky memorabilia was stolen says Connor Bedard brought him back

A man whose large collection of Wayne Gretzky memorabilia was stolen says he had given up on the hobby until rookie NHL star Connor Bedard brought him back.

Aron Gratias of Emma Lake, Sask., said the items of his collection that were stolen included 19 autographed Gretzky jerseys from every team the hockey legend played for since the age of 12.

Signed pictures, hockey sticks, pucks and close to 10,000 hockey cards — including 2,200 of Gretzky, some autographed — were also stolen, along with other items.

The theft from a rural property near Shellbrook, Sask., about 120 kilometres north of Saskatoon, was discovered in April, 2022. The collection had been in a locked storage container.

Almost a year later, RCMP announced they recovered a "large quantity" of the memorabilia from a Shellbrook home. A 41-year-old man was arrested and charged with possession of stolen property obtained by crime over $5,000.

But Gratias said it was only a small percentage of his collection and mostly lesser-valued items, such as key chains, game ticket stubs and posters.

All of his most precious memorabilia remained missing until just before last Christmas, when police produced one of his autographed Gretzky hockey sticks. Gratias was told it was found in an abandoned vehicle north of Shellbrook as part of an unrelated criminal investigation.

Then two months ago, police in Prince Albert, about 40 kilometres east of Shellbrook, recovered three of Gratias's signed Gretzky jerseys in another unrelated investigation. Gratias was told that during a search of a suspect's home, officers came across the jerseys in the living room.

"I was kind of giving up hope. It was just over a year that we were turning over rocks and not finding anything," he said.

"It started to give me a little bit more hope that maybe this stuff didn't move as far as I thought it was moving."

Gratias said about 75 per cent of his collection remains missing — but with these recent discoveries, he's feeling "very positive."

Because the Gretzky collection was "selectively removed" from one of two storage containers in the yard — with expensive household and garage items left behind — people were telling Gratias it had to be someone close to him.

Gratias said he doesn't know the accused, but he believes someone he knows tipped off whoever was responsible or told the wrong people.

"Just the whole timing of the yard being plowed, access to that sea can — very few individuals knew that it was accessible during a certain time," he said.