'Just bring it back': Weather station stolen from Newfoundlander's backyard
"Whoever has it, just bring it back -- no questions asked."
Kelly Butt just wants his weather station back.
In a Twitter post, the St. John's, Newfoundland, resident said the roughly $2,000-worth of equipment was stolen in an overnight theft from his backyard on Sunday, September 6th -- and he doesn't have money to replace it.
"Initially, I went to check to see what the temperature was that morning, which I do every morning," he tells The Weather Network. "I noticed that it wasn't showing any readings and I thought, oh that's strange, so I'm going to go out and have a look and see what's going on. And I go out and it's gone and I'm like oh, ok, that's great."
Butt's Vantage Davis Pro2 weather station with a fan aspirated radiation shield for temperature readings used to transmit wirelessly to his computer.
"I'm pretty upset... pretty angry. I went out and purchased this thing a few months ago, and I wanted something as top of the line as I could get."
Part of a network of volunteer observers called Cocorahs, Butt goes out each day to take measurements of rainfall or snowfall.
During a snowstorm, he'd be out every hour. He says he feels lost without it, but can't afford to replace it right now.
"I'm so used to having a weather station over the last ten years, that not having a weather station, as a volunteer observer, doesn't feel pretty good."
Butt has filed a complaint with the police in St. John's and says he's been blown away by kind words from members of the weather community on social media.
Without the indoor console for the readouts, the station doesn't transmit anywhere, rendering it useless.
His plea:
"Whoever has it, just bring it back, you know, no questions asked. I would just like to have it back. Hopefully it's not in pieces or anything like that. If not, I'm just going to have to eventually go get another one. That's just how it's going to have to be."
For more on Butt's story, watch the video above.
If you have any tips as to the whereabouts of this weather station, tweet @NateTWN or @KellyMButt.
A GoFundMe has been set up to get Kelly new equipment.
