3 years after theft, family 'memory binders' returned to London senior

A London senior who spent decades researching and typing up her family history only to have thieves take it from a relative's car got some good news this week: someone found the stolen treasure and returned it, three years later. 

Three massive binders stuffed with research, pictures and stories were stolen from a car, parked at the intersection of Queens Avenue and Colborne Street, in November 2020. Despite posts about the theft on Facebook, as well as a CBC News report, the binders were missing — until this week.

"On Monday morning, I got a message (on Facebook) that she had the books and wanted to get them back to the rightful owners," said Irene Pike, 86, who compiled the books. 

It turns out a woman had been out for a walk the night Pike's binders were stolen, and found them near a church on Queens Avenue. Not recognizing the rural address on the books, she didn't know where to return them and didn't use social media at the time to try to find Pike, whose name was printed on the books. 

"Whoever stole must have gone to the church and sat on the bench and taken the gift card, but the bags were really heavy so they probably just took out my books," Pike said. "She didn't know how to contact me so she put them in a drawer and forgot about them, but then she had a flood and had to move everything out, so that's when she found them again." 

Now with a Facebook account, the woman found Pike and sent her the message on Monday. At first, Pike thought it was a scam. "I was a little skeptical. It was quite a shock. My daughter and I were in tears to get them back. We were so pleased." 

The binders include baby pictures, marriage certificates, death certificates and stories of family members' lives, Pike said. Some of the information goes back to the 1600s and includes research that Pike started in the 1980s. 

Each book is worth about $150 because Pike used photo-quality paper for each person's story, plus hundreds of dollars on ink. But the time she spent researching and typing everything up is incalculable.

London Morning7:23Losing hundreds of years of family history

Londoner Irene Pike tells London Morning how she hopes someone can help her locate three large binders she painstakingly filled with hundreds of years worth of family history. The binders were stolen from a car in London on Black Friday.