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Kamloops family looking for stolen vial with pet's ashes after theft from car

This morning Amber Hardy noticed things were a bit askew in her car as she and her family headed for some groceries.

While most things hadn't been touched — like CDs, sunglasses and unopened food — one thing was missing. The silver-coloured vial containing the ashes of Kaycee, the family's dog who died in 2015 had been taken.

Upon reviewing footage from their security system, Hardy saw a man rummaging in her car at 4:13 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 29. She says from the video footage she thinks he has a heart.

"He almost didn't take them, I think he was pondering," she says, noting that he left at first, before coming back to take the vial. "Maybe he needed to eat."

Hardy says she thinks he might have thought it was real silver and therefore worth something. However, the vial isn't silver, and contains no monetary value except to the Hardys. It's engraved with "Kaycee forever in our hearts" and has a dog paw on a key ring. A similar vial with the ashes of her grandfather was left behind; she theorizes because the chain it's on got stuck.

She reported the theft to Kamloops RCMP and sent them the video footage. Officers recognized the man and had heard he was trying to sell the vial at Northills Mall on the North Shore. However, when they went to the mall to find him, he'd fled, she says.

Now, she worries, the man has tossed the vial and the family will never see it again. 

"Unfortunately, because it's inscribed you can't sell it anywhere because it's useless to anyone but me," she says. "It's probably never going to be recovered, it's probably going to be chucked in a dumpster."

The vial has been in the car for years; Kaycee was put down in 2015. The Hardy's had rescued the big sheepdog a couple years prior from a farm in 100 Mile House. The SPCA had gone up to rescue dogs from the farm, but hadn't been able to get Kaycee. Hardy and her husband decided to go up themselves and were able to find her and bring her south.

When they let the SPCA know they'd found Kaycee and were bringing her back to Kamloops, the SPCA told them they could keep Kaycee if they wanted.

"She was only with us for two and a half years, but boy did we give her the best couple years of her life," Hardy says.

Even though she's had a number of dogs over the years, Hardy says Kaycee was one of a kind.

"She was the best dog in the world," she says. "She was something special, something I'd never seen."

That's why the vial was in the car, so Hardy had Kaycee wherever she went.

She's also warning people who have keyless entry. While Hardy isn't certain how the man got into her car, one of her theories is that because the car was in her driveway and the keys were by the front door, the keyless entry system simply let him open the door.

"They can very much use that to get in," she says. "That's how I think he got into my car."

While it's the first theft from her car recently, she notes it's an issue they've faced in Valleyview since they moved to the neighbourhood in 2016. After several break-ins, the Hardys got a high-end surveillance system. She says there's evidence it's caused people to think better of trying their vehicles, with footage showing people getting partway up their driveway.

"We've got a serious problem over here," she says, noting her husband, who works in Valleyview, had his wedding ring stolen from his truck when it was parked at his place of employment.