Our initial days as newlyweds brought about unique challenges. I was livid he’d forgotten his wallet. He was livid that his now-wife, a known workaholic, had assigned herself an investigative journalism project as a result.
My frustration only furthered my resolve to go full Nancy Drew and find out who committed this heartless crime. While Will was getting a new vehicle window installed, I snuck off to scope out the crime scene. I knocked on doors in the heritage district surrounding Ralph Connor House, made phone calls to people who had door-cameras, and even did Sherbrook “streeters” (a journalistic practise that involves stopping strangers in public to ask them to weigh-in on a timely topic; I did a lot of these as an intern).
I was desperate for any leads. On Monday morning, when RaY opened, I happily accepted rubber gloves from a woman working the front-desk so I could sort through their outdoor garbage bins.
By Tuesday, Will was exhausted. But he’s nothing if not supportive, so he agreed—reluctantly—to drive me to the main police station in Winnipeg. We arrived at the front desk, where we were asked to take a number and wait.
Will rolled his eyes when I insisted on packing “evidence” for our visit to police headquarters. Neither of us could help but laugh, though, when I presented security-camera locations, contact for a neighborhood watch group, and a rotting apple core. I can only imagine the intake officer — who did not laugh—thought we were wasting his time. The Winnipeg Police Service received upwards of 6,600 “theft under $5,000 from motor vehicle” reports last year. Only 0.4% of these cases were solved, police data show.
Winnipeg is also notorious for its violent crime rates, both of which are consistently among the worst in Canada. City police triage their limited resources, understandably. However, we were a little shocked when an investigator called us to say it was extremely unlikely he’d be able to recover any footage from the convenience store where a thief had tapped all of Will’s cards. “These stores don’t usually cooperate,” he told us, alluding to the fact the shopkeeper had clearly turned a blind eye.
