• This story has been updated
Kevin Sears’ work truck has been found, but it doesn’t look pretty – and most of his tools are gone, of course.
“It was bashed up pretty good – they punched the lock and the ignition,” Sears said Tuesday (March 13). “They spray-painted it, too, to cover up the logo and the company name.”
Sears, a Surrey resident who survived the mass shooting in Las Vegas last fall, had his truck stolen from outside his Fraser Heights-area home on the morning of Thursday, March 8.
A plumbing and heating contractor, Sears drives a white cube van with Plumbtec Mechanical Inc. painted on the side.
The 2006 Ford went missing at around 4 a.m., Sears figured.
“I heard something,” he said. “It was parked on the street right in front of my house.”
• READ MORE: Vegas shooting survivor from Surrey retraces steps at concert site, honoured at hockey game, from Feb. 28.
A day later, on Friday (March 9), the truck was found in Langley, Sears said.
“Pretty much all the tools are gone,” he noted, estimating their value at between $20,000 and $30,000.
“I should have insurance for that,” Sears added. “I need to get a van for temporary use, and I’m buying tools as I speak.”
Sears said the truck has been broken into before, but never stolen – until last week.
“We have had a couple of vehicles broken into in our neighbourhood, but I’m not sure about whole vehicles stolen,” he said the day his truck went missing. “They just want the contents.”
Late last month, Sears found the strength to return to the scene of the largest mass shooting in U.S. history.
With his wife and friends, he flew back to Las Vegas, where he was struck by a gunman’s bullet during the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival last October, and walked the concert grounds again.
He brought along a custom-made “Vegas Strong” hockey jersey to wear at the Golden Knights’ hockey game against the Vancouver Canucks on Feb. 23, and was honoured on the arena’s big screen during the game.
In Vegas last October, Sears, his wife, Coleen, and another couple were enjoying the music of country musician Jason Aldean when all hell broke loose.
“I dove on top of my wife and another lady nearby, and took a bullet,” he recalled in a recent interview. “It probably would have hit either Coleen or the other lady.”
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