Revelstoke jeweller donates $1,500 to women’s shelter after robbery
Robbers hit artisan jeweller Kat Cadegan’s Revelstoke store last week with $42,000 worth of engagement rings stolen. The traumatic event has driven her to donate $1,500 to the Revelstoke Women’s Shelter.
“My accountant is probably yelling at me,” she said. “I just don’t want to let them win.”
The robbery last Thursday afternoon on February 19 is a blow to the tiny downtown business and it is unlikely insurance will cover the cost.
Kat Cadegan, owner of Kat Cadegan Jewellery.
A man and a woman with a three-year-old were served by a staff member at the Mackenzie Avenue store. Cadegan says her staff member felt an abusive dynamic between the pair, the man aggressively speaking to the woman in another language, appearing to urge her to steal.
Cadegan has had jewellery store owners across the region reach out to her on social media, piecing together the shoplifters’ movements. She says a store in Calgary was robbed on Wednesday February 19, a day before her store was hit.
It also appears that the same people have stolen from jewellery stores in Squamish, Vancouver, Kamloops, Vernon, and attempted to steal from a store in Canmore. Due to the serial nature of these robberies, Cadegan thinks it might be more organised than a one-off cry for help from a mother. Children seem to be an integral part of the crimes with a seven-year-old present at the robbery in Salmon Arm. Local RCMP are involved.
The incident has shaken Cadegan and she says she’s been called naïve for not blaming the woman. It is an example of how other people’s abusive relationships bleed out into local communities.
“It has been deeply traumatising,” Cadegan said. “My team is scared. I am scared. This man has violated us.”
“This might be me rationalising — this is a woman who feels she has no other choice. Who would do this to their children if they felt they had choice or power?”
For Cadegan, also a mother with young children, it’s having children involved that hits hardest. “The children were used as a distraction and I feel in my bones that this mother felt as though she had no other choice,” she says. “A victim of the horrid man she was with.”
“To me it feels like there are no winners. If they get caught, they’re probably going to get deported and then what happens to these children?”
Revelstoke women’s shelter executive director Lynn Loeppky says immigrant women are at risk of abuse due to limited options they have for financial independence and cultural gender differences.
“Foreign women face abusive situations as they feel they don’t have a choice,” she says. “This could be trafficking, using women and children to steal goods.”
Revelstoke RCMP Staff Sergeant Chris Dodds confirmed they are investigating a theft but no other offences at this time.
“If the police have evidence that a person, male or female, is being coerced or forced to commit a crime by another person, we would look into that as part of our investigation,” he said.
The incident has caused Cadegan to become more distrustful and the donation to the women’s shelter is one way to regain control.
“I wish I could have let her know that this is not the only choice she has in life,” Cadegan explains. “If she came back with or without the rings, my answer would be I just want to help her.”
“If I can’t help her, maybe I can help someone else who feels like they don’t have a choice.”
Kat Cadegan Jewellery’s donation of $1,500 to the shelter’s Coldest Night of the Year fundraiser goes towards a free counselling program that anyone in the community can access.
The Revelstoke Women’s Shelter has four bedrooms and a dedicated family space. The shelter takes in women and their children, but women don’t have to stay at the shelter to access its services and support. The shelter’s 24/7 helpline is 250-837-1111.
—-
*This incident is classified as “Theft Over $5000” in Canada rather than a robbery. A robbery is defined in Canada as a theft with violence or threat of violence. No violence was reported/alleged in this specific incident.