SIMMONS: Mounties on the hunt, have suspect in case of stolen $400,000 Wayne Gretzky jersey
The jersey that the Great One wore in the 1984 Canada Cup and gifted to Kent Nilsson was stolen and believed to be in Fort McMurray
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The mystery of the stolen Wayne Gretzky jersey remains, with RCMP in Alberta and police in Sweden still trying to unravel all the complications.
The estimated worth of the jersey is $400,000.
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SIMMONS: Mounties on the hunt, have suspect in case of stolen $400,000 Wayne Gretzky jersey Back to video
It was apparently stolen from the home of Kent Nilsson, the former NHL star and longtime close friend of Gretzky. When Gretzky was dominating the NHL in scoring, he once referred to Nilsson as the most talented player in hockey.
When the 1984 Canada Cup tournament came to an end, with Team Canada beating Team Sweden in the final, Gretzky and Nilsson spontaneously decided on the ice to exchange jerseys.
The jersey became the centrepiece of a collection that started with Nilsson’s mother.
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She gathered her son’s jerseys from every team he played on — from the Winnipeg Jets of the WHA and the Flames of Atlanta and Calgary and the Minnesota North Stars before he played with Gretzky on the Edmonton Oilers. She had all of the Swedish jerseys and all of the European teams he played for after prematurely leaving the NHL.
Nilsson had his own collection as well. It included sweaters from Paul Coffey, Mark Messier and Glenn Anderson, all of them Nilsson’s teammates in Edmonton.
Nilsson says he knows who broke into his home originally — he alleged it was his nephew, his sister’s son, a relative with a serious drug problem.
He says he wasn’t looking for hockey memorabilia as much as he was looking for a way to get high. The relative turned the jersey over to somebody — apparently for $500 — not having a clue of what it was really worth.
Now the jersey, Nilsson said, has somehow made its way to Alberta. Up north in Fort McMurray, apparently. Nilsson believes he knows who has the jersey. He believes police know as well. The question now is locating it — and, at the same time, making sure it isn’t sold publicly in any way.
“I’d give him another one,” Gretzky said on his cellphone, remembering the on-ice exchange from 1984. “But the only other one I had is in the Hall of Fame now. I wish I had one for him.”
Police in Fort McMurray paid a visit to the alleged owner of the stolen jersey. They went to pick up the jersey and possibly arrest the man. The first time they went, though, they weren’t allowed in.
When they came back with a search warrant, the office was open, and there was no jersey.
“We have a suspect,” said Emanuel Rojas-Grenier, the RCMP officer who was first assigned to the case and has since been transferred elsewhere. “Obviously, I can’t give you the identity of that individual because they haven’t been charged or anything like that.
“I can’t really go into details with you on this because it’s an ongoing investigation,” Rojas-Grenier added, but he did admit they had obtained a search warrant for the suspected owner’s office.
“As far as we understand, the jersey was stolen and made its way to Canada. I know there is a story here and there will be interest in this, but there’s not a happy conclusion at the moment … Maybe getting some publicity for this will be helpful with our investigation.
“We want to get this jersey back. I think it would be great for Kent and great for the hockey community.”
It isn’t the cost of the jersey that bothers Nilsson — although that certainly matters — it’s what the jersey means to him.
Nilsson was once a 131-point scorer in Calgary when Gretzky led the NHL with 164 points in Edmonton. In those days, hockey in Alberta was better than hockey anywhere else.
Now Nilsson is 68 and Gretzky 63, their playing careers long behind them — but the connection never ends. That’s how it is in hockey. The friendship remains continents apart.
“We need to put pressure on this guy so he won’t be able to sell the jersey,” said Nilsson, who was called Magic Man long before Pavel Datsyuk set foot in the NHL. “I was very optimistic (that police were close on this). And then they got there and the jersey was gone.”
Gretzky wants Nilsson to get the jersey back.
“You would hope police can find this and settle the situation,” Gretzky said. “I can’t imagine someone will be able to sell the jersey. The collectibles world is a pretty small one. As soon as it was available, people would be tipped off to where the jersey is and who has it.”
Gretzky isn’t much of a collector himself. His dad took care of that for him. He does still have his rookie of the year award from the WHA.
“I tried to give it back,” Gretzky said. “But I didn’t know who to give it back to. The league folded.”
Now he’d like to find a way — as would the RCMP — to get the stolen jersey back to his old friend.
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