It is not quite divine intervention, but a Peterborough priest is thanking God nonetheless for returning a prized possession to him.
Father Andrew Begin drove down from his Peterborough parish Thursday morning to a Toronto police station to retrieve his priest's sick call kit, stolen when his car was broken into some four years ago.
The kit is used to bring communion to those suffering from an illness.
"One of my brother priests, actually my best friend, gave it to me and said keep this in your car," he told CTV Toronto. "I'm very excited, I can't wait to get it back and put it in my car so I am always ready."
The thieves couldn't sell it, as there is no black market for mass kits, so for four years it sat in a box in the thief's apartment. The kit was part of a massive haul accumulated during a rash of car thefts in the Toronto area over the past few years.
It was among thousands of dollars worth of GPS devices, phones and computers retrieved after police broke up a car theft ring that had been working underground garages for years. Most recently they concentrated on the Flemingdon Park neighbourhood where some 40 vehicles had been targeted in January.
Four men face more than 300 charges. Some of the seized items date back from robberies a number of years ago, but police said most were from a recent spree that saw some 20 vehicles robbed while parked in an underground parking garage at 1 Deauville Lane, in the Eglinton Avenue East and Don Mills Road area.
"I can forgive them. It is what we're called to do, is to forgive. If you don't forgive they will keep doing it," he said.
Still, if he loses it again, he concedes he might have to appeal to a higher entity for help.
"If they take it again, I'll have to pray to St. Anthony to find it."
With a report by Austin Delaney
