Help pours in for Sask. teen after rock shop robbery

An outpouring of support in the wake of an ugly case of theft is helping a young Saskatchewan entrepreneur get back on his feet.

Judah Tyreman, 13, runs the Sesula Mineral & Gem Museum in the town of Radisson, about 45 minutes northwest of Saskatoon.

“The thing about my museum, it’s half rock shop and half museum, so there are things for sale but there are also things just for display,” he said Tuesday on Gormley.

Tyreman and his younger sister have turned the fledgling business into a fun attraction for people looking to take a break on their travels along Highway 16.

Thieves damaged some displays and made off with thousands of dollars in rare rocks after breaking in over the weekend.

“Luckily it wasn’t too bad. It was kind of ransacked, but none of the big displays were tipped over,” he said, adding the rarity of some of the stones will make them all but impossible to sell.

Tyreman is taking the setback in stride. He said he was open for business within hours of discovering the theft.

Even though the doors are open, Tyreman said it will still take him some time to get everything back to the way it was.

He’s getting help in that regard thanks to a flood of calls from supporters across North America offering to send him replacement stones.

“We set up a gofundme page because people said they wanted to donate and we’ve raised slightly over $6,000,” he said.

Tyreman reported via his museum’s Facebook page that he’d also gotten a call from Saskatchewan Minister of Tourism Gene Makowsky, who directed the Royal  Saskatchewan Museum to donate all its duplicate stones.