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They were looking for trash but came across a treasure and now volunteers doing a weekend shoreline cleanup are looking for the rightful owner of the precious memento.

A Vancouver 2010 Olympic torch was found in the bushes near the Coal Harbour seawall by Nikki Brar and her colleague.

A serial number imprinted on the torch didn’t help them track down its rightful owner online but they’ve learned it was donated to them by a former Aldergrove Community Secondary School student.

“Their librarian contacted us after watching the news [Sunday],” Brar said.

She added the school was broken into in February and the torch was stolen.

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The school’s principal didn’t know the serial number that was on the stolen torch, Brar said, adding the principal is contacting the donor family to see if they have that number.

“The RCMP was involved but so far they haven’t been able to locate it,” she said.

The torch was found on Friday as Brar and her colleagues were taking part in the Copperleaf Technologies Random Acts of Delight, or RAD, program.

“Two of the girls actually found a syringe a little bit ahead and so we went over to see it so we could make sure it got disposed of correctly and as I was walking over there, I noticed something shiny peeking through the bushes and when we looked inside it was the Vancouver 2010 Olympic torch,” Brar told Global News.

She said the torch was wedged into the bush and sitting upright when she and her colleague found it.

“Some of the bikers that were driving by they told us that they’re actually worth quite a bit so we thought that maybe somebody stole it and stashed it into the bushes… for later maybe to sell it or something,” she said.

“We just took it out and we literally carried it with us everywhere we went for the rest of the shoreline cleanup.”

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Brar said they’re waiting to hear back on whether the torch belongs to the school and if that isn’t the case, they’ll hand it over to police to try and locate the owner.