The owner of Horse Creek Heritage Candy & Gifts is asking for public assistance after signage for her store went missing earlier this week.
Cherie Hill, who relocated her shop earlier this year, had installed directional signs to help patrons and new customers find the new location.
“Once I put some money together, I put little signs from the old location saying, ‘Hey, you want some fun and unique candy? Follow me!’” Hill said.
The 12-by-16-inch signs, which featured friendly cartoon characters, were placed around the downtown area. Hill said she had six signs up last week to guide visitors.
But by Monday morning, they had vanished.
“I drove up and down the street and all my signs were gone,” she said. “At first, I thought it was just some teenagers messing around on a Saturday night.”
To her surprise, however, Hill received surveillance footage from another downtown business.
“Global Pet contacted me saying they had security footage of someone taking one of the signs from outside Mountain View Optometry Monday morning,” she said.
The video shows an older man wearing a dark hat and coat removing one of the signs and discarding it in a nearby garbage bin.
“I don’t know why he’d do this,” Hill said. “There was nothing offensive about them, and they weren’t in the way.”
Hill has since contacted the Cochrane RCMP and is sharing the footage on social media in hopes of identifying the man.
“It wasn’t his business to touch them, and now I just want to be compensated for what he did,” she said.
RCMP are investigating the incident. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Cochrane RCMP at 403-851-8000. Tips can also be submitted anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).
