By Dominic Abassi

VIDEO: Nanaimo boxing coach reunited with ‘irreplaceable’ championship belt

Sep 14, 2018 | 3:07 PM

NANAIMO — The community stepped into the ring to help a Nanaimo boxing coach successfully defend his title.

Bob Pegues was reunited with his beloved and hard-earned world championship boxing belt on Thursday evening, just days after it and several other items were stolen from his car.

Cory Opheim first called the NanaimoNewsNOW newsroom on Wednesday afternoon, saying his coworker found a brown leather bag with some unique items inside tucked between the garbage dumpsters by a business on Barons Rd.

“I heard on the news on The Wolf (106.9 FM) someone was missing it so I called my coworker and asked if he still had the bag of boxing stuff. He did and here we are now giving it back.”

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Opheim said it felt really good to be back of a story that garnered widespread attention.

It was that media attention and the subsequent response from the community which Pegeus believed made the stolen items “too hot” to sell, prompting the thief to ditch them.

“It was a great response. All the sharing and the comments. I had so many calls. People stopped me on the street, ‘Are you the guy that lost the belt?’”

He said the belt, which he earned at the age of 60, is “irreplaceable and invaluable.”

“Where would I ever get another one unless I bought it and that wouldn’t really mean much, right?”

Pegues said several pieces of critical evidence have been forwarded to police to help them with their active investigation into the theft.

— with files from Ian Holmes

dom@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @domabassi