Steven Ogle, CEO of the Aero Space Museum of Calgary.Chris Bolin Photography Inc.
Everything about it seems like a heist by thieves with a penchant for aviation memorabilia.
Workers closing the Aero Space Museum of Calgary in the wee hours Sunday morning noticed the alarm had mysteriously been disabled. Maintenance would have to wait until Monday, but the museum nonetheless reopened Sunday.
However, when staff arrived Monday morning, they found a broken lock on a main door, broken glass on the floor and display cases emptied. Another $400 was swiped from donation bins as well as Canadian Tire money collected to buy items that for the aircraft restoration shop.
Police are investigating, but Steven Ogle, the museum's chief executive officer, said museum workers have their own theories.
"We believe it was someone who had been here before," he said, "They knew what they were after."
With roots dating back to 1960, the exhibition gallery was the city's first aviation museum. Then known as the Air Museum of Canada, it consisted mostly of privately owned aircraft. In 1971 its assets went to the city.
But by 1975, the Aero Space Museum Association of Calgary was registered as a charitable group and it took over responsibility for the collection. It wasn't until 1985 that the Aero Space Museum of Calgary found a home at the south end of the Calgary International Airport in a former Second World War British Commonwealth Air Training Program hangar.
Bill Watts, who died last March at the age of 95, is credited as the founder of the museum. Even until last summer, the former Royal Canadian Air Force pilot and retired manager of the Calgary airport was at the museum for many hours each day.
Sprawling over 21,000 square feet, the museum's assets were last valued at about $12-million and includes about a dozen planes. Its annual operating budget of about $500,000 comes from admission and facility rental fees, sponsorships, grants and funding from the city, but it hasn't always been easy to keep the books balanced.
A previously scheduled meeting on Tuesday with Lindsay Blackett, Alberta Culture and Community Spirit Minister, left staff feeling optimistic about the museum's future.
It attracted about 27,000 visitors last year and boasts 50 active volunteers.
Bob O'Connor, an 86-year-old Second World War veteran, is among the aviation enthusiasts who has donated his time here to help build and restore planes.
As he lingered by a smashed cabinet that held a number of items from the German Luftwaffe, which thieves couldn't get to, Mr. O'Connor said he popped in to see if he could help.
"At least they didn't damage any of the aircraft," said the retired geologist who worked as a navigator flying a de Havilland Mosquito during the war.
Museum workers compiled a list of 13 missing items. They include medals and badges. Also gone is a RCAF wooden "swagger stick" adorned with a crown and albatross on the metal knob. So is a pilot's log book dated Dec. 19, 1916, to Jan. 16, 1919, written by T.W.G. Thomson of the Royal Naval Air Service.
Mr. Ogle, who retired after 36 years in aviation mechanics, was a long-time patron and member of the museum before he took charge of it.
"It's a comfort place; a place you can come and relax," he said.
But not as much any more.
"The artifacts that were taken, the heirlooms that were taken, were provided to us as family memorabilia," Mr. Ogle said, "They entrusted the museum to take care of these things."
Aviation museums across the country have called in their support and are on the lookout for the stolen goods. Mr. Ogle said they may surface on internet auction sites, even though it's nearly impossible to place a value on them.
Mr. Ogle had two words for the culprits: "Grave robbers."