Man sells stolen property to its owner, who didn’t know it was missing

By Peggy Revell on April 4, 2017.

prevell@medicinehatnews.com @MHNprevell

April Fool’s Day turned out to be no joke in a Medicine Hat court case whereby a man unwittingly purchased his own stolen post hole digger.

Brandon Morehouse, 26, entered a guilty plea to trafficking stolen items Tuesday at the Medicine Hat Provincial Courthouse, after a string of coincidences on April 1 led to his arrest.

On that day, a Medicine Hat man was looking through the online classified site Kijiji, and came across a post hole digger he wanted to buy. The man contacted the seller — Morehouse — and made arrangements for the purchase. While at the Morehouse’s place, the man noticed that there were multiple other items for sale, including a red and silver mountain bike that was similar to his own. He purchased the post hole digger, as well as a few other tools.

Upon returning home, the coincidence of it all stuck with the man. He went out to his shed and discovered that not only was his bike gone, but a post hole digger he owned that was identical to the one he had just purchased.

He contacted police, who were able to identify the items as stolen.

Morehouse was sentenced to one count of trafficking stolen property, as well as breaching his release conditions as he had been arrested in New Brunswick on similar charges and was not supposed to leave the province. In total, he was sentenced to 45 days in jail, of which six have been deemed served due to pretrial custody.

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