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Thief returns stolen gate to Saanich farm

The thief who nicked a farm gate in rural Saanich last week has had a change of heart.
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Jodi Harding, right, and her daughter Katy Harding with a replacement farm gate after theirs was stolen from the driveway of their property. The stolen gate has been returned. ADRIAN LAM, TIMES COLONIST

The thief who nicked a farm gate in rural Saanich last week has had a change of heart.

The Harding family said its “faith in human nature has been restored” after the gate was returned sometime in the early hours on Saturday, a week after thieves cut a chain and removed it from its hinges.

The family was livid over the theft, as it put their animals — a horse and donkey, a dog and several chicken and ducks — at risk if they escaped onto nearby Interurban Road, a busy thoroughfare for traffic.

“It couldn’t have been easy for whoever absconded with our big old gate to return it to the scene and give it back,” Jodi Harding wrote in a social media post. “But they did it anyway. Thank you whoever you are.

“We’re all human, and we all do stuff we later wish we hadn’t. Sometimes, we even have the courage to make it right.”

The family had replaced the 12-foot gate the day after the theft with an older one they had on the property.

The returned gate was found leaning up against the replacement as Harding got up Sunday morning to “feed the barnyard crew.”

“I can only imagine where it’s travelled,” she said.