Connor Callaghan's 2003 Toyota Tundra has been found.
Last week, Callaghan, a firefighter with the Merritt Fire Devils Unit Crew, left his truck at his Merritt base when he and his crew were summoned to Penticton to fight the Christie Mountain wildfire.
After a trio of tough 12-hour shifts near the fire's Heritage Hills epicentre, Callaghan caught a ride back to Merritt.
But his personal truck had disappeared.
"I got a ride back to Merritt and the base about 10 on Friday morning," said the 24-year-old UBC Okanagan Mechanical Engineering student a couple days later. "I was really tired, and I just couldn't remember where I parked my truck. But it just wasn't there."
"So I went and told the office guys. We looked at the footage and sure enough around 2:30 a.m. on Friday morning, not long before I got back, we saw someone pull up in a white sedan. They stopped by my truck for 20 minutes, and then both of them pulled out."
The truck, and its contents, had great value to the Kelowna resident. He had camped in the Tundra part time during the summer as he shuttled back and forth between Kelowna and Merritt.
And inside were his school bag and laptop, camping gear and assorted clothing, and a pretty special blanket that belonged to his grandfather, Gary Schreider, a former CFLer and All Star. The blanket recognized Schreider's inclusion in the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame.
According to Callaghan, details are scant at this time.
"The RCMP in Kamloops called me yesterday and said they found it," he said this morning. "But they're carrying out their own investigation now, so I think I won’t have much more information for a couple days probably."
"They basically said they got the person who was in possession of the truck and arrested him on possession of stolen property, so they kind of have their own investigation to carry out before I can get it back."
Callaghan is still unsure what contents, if any, were recovered. "It looks like the bike rack is removed from a photo I got from someone on Facebook, so I'm not that hopeful of the contents. But my spirits are pretty good and I'm just pretty happy that the truck is going to be returned."
And one other thing. Callaghan wants to thank the community.
"Thanks to everyone for their help on all of this. It looks like community support really pushed this thing along."
