CamBay merchant sees red after shoplifter steals, then sells items

Here’s the brown sealskin vest that went missing from the Arctic Closet in Cambridge Bay and then was sold to an unsuspecting buyer in the town. (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARCTIC CLOSET)

A Cambridge Bay entrepreneur is furious because she discovered a shoplifter took many valuable items from her store and then tried to sell them around town.

Late last week, Vicki Aitaok, manager of the Arctic Closet store in Cambridge Bay, found an empty hangar where a brown sealskin vest with two white igloos had hung the previous day. The vest, made in Gjoa Haven, with a pricetag of $350. had not been sold.

Aitaok decided to post a message on the Cambridge Bay Facebook news page asking if anyone had seen the size XL vest.

What she learned from the responses to her Facebook posting shocked her.

“By putting this vest out on Facebook, I have found out from others that more than seven pieces have been stolen from the Arctic Closet and sold around town. I managed to get three pieces back,” she said, adding these are now in the hands of the RCMP as they investigate the theft.

The missing items, whose value exceeds $5,000, also include carvings.

Aitoak says most door-to-door sellers of arts and crafts in Cambridge Bay have made their crafts themselves.

So “buyer beware” is Aitaok’s advice if you chose to buy something a seller claims is made by a third party, or when you don’t know the seller personally.

Aitaok thinks that the shoplifter took items when the salesclerk was occupied with customers or simply grabbed the items off hangers hung near the door while leaving the store.

The RCMP are holding a 24-year old man in custody in connection with the theft.

(More to come)

The Arctic Closet in Cambridge Bay has cameras outside of the store and mirrors inside the store to discourage break-ins and shoplifters. (FILE PHOTO)