{"id":8911,"date":"2014-11-12T16:34:45","date_gmt":"2014-11-12T21:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=8911"},"modified":"2014-11-19T15:20:11","modified_gmt":"2014-11-19T20:20:11","slug":"police-seek-suspect-in-poppy-box-theft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/police-seek-suspect-in-poppy-box-theft\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDATED: Police arrest Bradford man following Poppy box theft"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

York Regional Police have charged a Bradford man in connection with the theft of a Poppy Donation Box from Aurora\u2019s Canadian Tire store.<\/p>\n

Brian Hamaty, 50, was arrested Thursday and charged with theft under $5,000, according to Constable Andy Pattenden of the York Regional Police. He is scheduled to appear in court on December 23. <\/p>\n

The charges have not been proven in court.<\/p>\n

EARLIER:<\/p>\n

York Regional Police are searching for a male suspect following the theft of a Royal Canadian Legion Poppy Box from the Canadian Tire located directly across the street from the Aurora Cenotaph.<\/p>\n

The theft took place on Friday, November 7, on the eve of the Royal Canadian Legion\u2019s Veterans\u2019 Dinner.<\/p>\n

\u201cSecurity cameras captured images of the suspect being dropped off at the store shortly after 9 a.m. in an older model red Chevrolet Aveo or Pontiac Vibe that was missing a front right hubcap,\u201d said Constable Andy Pattenden of the York Regional Police in a statement. \u201cThe suspect entered the store and walked to an unattended cash register where he picks up the poppy donation box, conceals it beneath his coat, and exits the store.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is described as a white male, 5\u201911\u2019\u2019, 235 lbs, with a heavy build. He has a moustache and was wearing a black coat, navy blue shirt, and dark-coloured pants.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is degrading,\u201d said Lt. Col. Len Whines of the Aurora branch of the Royal Canadian Legion. \u201cI don\u2019t know why people do that, but I am more worried and concerned about the damage they do to a person because the person [at the boxes] is normally a veteran. How can anybody do a thing like that? It is absolutely ludicrous. You have people working their hearts off to make sure we do a Remembrance and all this kind of thing and somebody goes out and does that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Funds, he says, are relied upon by veterans, their wives, and families who are trying to make ends meet. Legions themselves are not allowed to touch a penny of it for their own purposes.<\/p>\n

Lt. Col. Whines added he hopes the suspect is apprehended and given \u201cat least two or three years to teach him a good lesson, not just a slap on the wrist\u201d, but it is a crime that has become all too common.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am getting immune to it because it happens so often,\u201d he said of the theft. \u201cThis year we have had four or five already, and we had a couple last year we didn\u2019t even hear about, but these things happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyone with information is asked to contact the York Regional Police #1 District Criminal Investigations Bureau at 1-866-876-5423 x7174, or to call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-TIPS, or leave a tip online at www.1800222tips.com.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

York Regional Police have charged a Bradford man in connection with the theft of a Poppy Donation Box from Aurora\u2019s Canadian Tire store.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/2014-11-13-16.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2jJ","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-11 23:52:28","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}