Pearson gold heist suspect arrested after flying into Toronto from India
Another suspect is in custody in connection with the gold heist at Toronto Pearson International Airport last year, police say.
When 1990s suede fringe jackets started making a comeback last year, U.K.-based vintage clothing company Glass Onion Vintage decided to order four tonnes of suede from a supplier in the United States.
Along with that shipment came a once-in-a lifetime discovery.
The delivery was made to its warehouse, where a total of 3.5 million items of recycled clothing are found on any given day. Occasionally staff will unearth a gem some customers will pay good money for, but what staff member Sophie Upson found, Glass Onion Vintage refuses to sell.
Upson was tasked with going through those suede items to inspect the quality and determine which ones could be resold or redesigned.
It took her a week to get through it all and by then, and after 12 years mastering her skills, she knew exactly the texture she was looking for.
“That is old,” she said to herself when she pulled out what turned to be a Canadian Indigenous jacket. It’s too elaborate to be a stage prop, she thought, as she looked inside the pockets.
“When they’ve got this linen-y fabric inside, it could be 1950s, could be '40s,” she explained to CTV News. But Upson was off by about century.
She told her boss, John Hickling, he had to come and see it.
“It’s beyond what I know,” Upson remarked.
Whereas other historic items have been auctioned off, this jacket will have a different fate.
“I want to find out as much about it as I possibly can,” Hickling told CTV News. “We want to do the right thing by the piece of clothing.”
Alice Leadbetter, head of marketing, then took the lead. She uploaded a video to TikTok and woke up the next day to half a million views and a messages from Canadian experts asking specific question about the pattern of the bead work, the stitching and the feel of the suede: is it soft or dense?
After six months, they’ve pieced together this much: “We now feel very confident that the jacket is either Metis or Cree (…) most likely from Alberta or Manitoba,” she said.
Leadbetter was told that the olive green chain stitch on the pocket is a technique that was taught in schools in the Red River region in pre-1850s. She was also told this was a hunting jacket.
“Some museums have suggested this was created by an artist, potentially for a family member or a fur trader,” she added.
The jacket is handcrafted with astonishing detail, only adding to the historical significance.
“We’re still looking for answers to narrow down it even further in hopes of finding the community it came from,” said Leadbetter, who spends hours answering emails from experts asking for more pictures.
(Daniele Hamamdjian / CTV News)
Like millions of other items in this warehouse, the jacket would have been donated to a thrift store, discarded, and then sold to a recycling company in the United States.
(Daniele Hamamdjian / CTV News)
“From there it would have been baled to different parts of the world, so maybe Pakistan, maybe Thailand,” explained Hickling.
(Daniele Hamamdjian / CTV News)
Incredibly, it would have also made its way back to the U.S. to the vintage dealer that supplied this company, in a little English market town, with the suede it ordered.
(Daniele Hamamdjian / CTV News)
“The thought of the full journey, where it’s come from in history, the recycling process, the fact that’s it’s ended up in South Yorkshire, that our skilled sorters have found it,” Hickling said, “it added to its story.”
A suede jacket is seen inside the Glass Onion Vintage warehouse. (Daniele Hamamdjian / CTV News)
Now it’s a question of completing the journey back to its original home.
(Daniele Hamamdjian / CTV News)
(Daniele Hamamdjian / CTV News)
Another suspect is in custody in connection with the gold heist at Toronto Pearson International Airport last year, police say.
Hailey and Justin Bieber are going to be parents. The couple announced the news on Thursday on Instagram, both sharing a video that showcases Hailey Bieber's growing belly.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A B.C. man has been convicted of assault with a weapon after using a skid-steer Bobcat to chase two homeless people from his lawn, injuring one of them in the process.
A Conservative government led by Pierre Poilievre would not legislate on, nor use the notwithstanding clause, on abortion, his office says, as anti-abortion protesters gather on Parliament Hill.
A southwestern Ontario woman has received an $8,400 bill from a hospital in Windsor, Ont., after she refused to put her mother in a nursing home she hated -- and she says she has no intention of paying it.
Miss Teen USA resigned Wednesday, sending further shock waves through the pageant community just days after Miss USA said she would relinquish her crown.
A grieving mother is speaking out after her 36-year-old son was shot and killed in North Preston, N.S., Wednesday night.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
The stakes have been set for a bet between Vancouver and Edmonton's mayors on who will win Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
A grieving mother is hosting a helmet drive in the hopes of protecting children on Manitoba First Nations from a similar tragedy that killed her daughter.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
A P.E.I. lighthouse and a New Brunswick river are being honoured in a Canada Post series.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.