Who stole the Puppy ? Gabriel Wortman or his Dad ?

As a metropolitan census area, ‘Moncton’ is a fair size. But the City of Moncton itself is still pretty much a big small town, and was even more so in 1989. 

In June of that year, eagle-eyed readers of the local daily probably noticed a small news item about a dog-napping case - and winced.

A well known local real estate businessman, Paul Stanley Wortman, was charged with the criminal act of ..... stealing a dog from a neighbour early in May. A rare charge and one very embarrassing for a small town businessman so dependent on maintaining his good reputation to secure customers. 

Now, usually, most such cases are settled there on the spot by the police-on-the-beat advising the two neighbours to settle things informally or in small claims court before it becomes a Criminal Code of Canada matter spanning over maybe years of court dates and lots of publicity - not to mention a possible criminal record and jail time for one party.

But the matter couldn’t be settled more informally and so Mr Wortman was charged a month later.

The court date was set for September of the same year with the matter still not settled.

Just before the September 1989 court session was about to open, the police dropped the charge - again reported in the local daily.

We have heard no evidence from any investigative reporter investigating Gabriel Wortman , of other criminal charges against his father Paul.

Frankly, it seems so out of character that I wonder did he even do it ?

Or was he just being the ultimate in good fathers, taking the rap for his son’s crime, so his son would still have a shot at joining the RCMP like his two uncles ?

Gabriel was back home in Moncton from university in Fredericton in early May 1989 and this sort of crime is much more in his nature.

He had publicly told all the world only a few years earlier that he hoped to join the RCMP, perhaps after he earned a degree in college.

I think that dream was still alive in the summer of 1989 - not just for Gabriel but for his parents & extended family.

I personally believe that Paul took a bullet for his son.

Or I’d need a lot of evidence that he was as criminal as his son and dog-napping was just the tip of the iceberg.

If there IS an iceberg, to date it seems well hidden...