A massive brass propeller with links to Prohibition-era gangster Al Capone has been located in a Squamish scrap metal yard, days after it was stolen from Horseshoe Bay — for the second time.
The propeller, which weighs about 120 kilograms, went missing from outside the Horseshoe Bay office of marine consultant Joe Spears overnight between Nov. 21 and 22.
The artifact once helped propel a boat used for rum running off the coast of Nova Scotia by the famed Chicago gangster.
The ship eventually made its way to British Columbia for use by the provincial police, before serving as a fish-packing vessel and then finally being bought by a forestry company in the Queen Charlottes.
The aging boat ran aground in the ecologically sensitive Burnaby Narrows in 2000 and was later disassembled in Vancouver.
Spears, at the time a marine lawyer for a company that helped clean up a spill from the wreck, took possession of the propeller, hoping to preserve it.
For years it sat outside his office on Bay Street.
Two years ago, the huge prop went missing for the first time.
“I told the police they should check the emergency rooms for hernias,” he said at the time.
Some quick sleuthing turned up the artifact at a Lower Mainland scrap metal yard. It was returned to Spears, who again put the brass object outside his office. “I figured lightning’s not going to strike twice,” he said. “It’s quite a bit of effort to move it.”
Spears said he was shocked last week when he found the propeller missing again.
Fortunately, media coverage of the missing marine museum piece caught the attention of someone who tipped police to a Squamish metal scrap yard — where RCMP subsequently located the propeller.
“I feel good that a piece a Canada’s marine history has been re-found,” said Spears on Tuesday.
West Vancouver Police spokesman Jeff Palmer said Spears has been “two times lucky. . . . I don’t know if I’d want to test the odds with a third time.”
Spears said he might consider putting the propeller on display outside again. “But only if it’s guarded.”
Palmer said it’s likely police will be recommending charges once their investigation is completed.
