Being premier of Saskatchewan can be a handful -- it’s a lesson Brad Wall learned the hard way two years ago when he lost his iPad in a parking lot while attempting to load a few too many items into his truck at once.
Wall said he didn’t realize the tablet was gone until about two hours after he drove off. He used software to attempt to track it down. But the trail went cold, and he was forced to remotely wipe the data.
“We pinged it. We did the search the iPad thing and could see it for a while . . . but then we just couldn’t find it,” Wall told CTV Regina.
Two years later, he is happily swiping away again. The device was returned thanks to an eagle-eyed convenience store shopper, a few phone calls, and an engraving on the back that reads “Brad Wall. The Saskatchewan Party.”
Remi Mike said he was leaving a convenience store when a homeless man offered to sell the wayward iPad to him.
“He was down on his luck. He said he got kicked out. He had all his clothes in a duffle bag. And he’s ripping everything out and he’s got this iPad at the bottom,” Mike said. “Brad Wall’s name (is) on the back. This is not adding up.”
He rang up his local representative to get some answers.
“Well this guy is asking $100 for it. Should I buy it?” Mike said he asked Regina Coronation Park MLA Mark Docherty over the phone. “He says, ‘Ya, ya, ya. (Wall) did lose it.”
Mike did as Docherty instructed, and a day later, the iPad was back in the premier’s hands – on his last day in the legislature.
“It’s like the reverse of a country song,” Wall joked. “Your dog comes back. Your iPad comes back.”
Wall is retiring next month after holding the Swift Current seat for the Saskatchewan Party for almost 20 years.
With a report from CTV Regina’s Wayne Mantyka
