When a thief stole keys and a Honda Odyssey from a Saskatoon family, they thought their van was gone for good — until they started receiving red light and parking tickets in the mail.

Weeks after the van went missing, an image of the van was captured in a photo snapped by a red-light camera at Idylwyld and 33rd Street.

Then a few days ago, Medbh English and her husband Ivan got more surprising mail. This time it was a parking ticket issued Nov. 7, on the 300 block of Sixth Avenue N.

"I'm amazed the person who stole the van is still driving around in Saskatoon," said English. "That amazes me that it hasn't been spotted or found."

'That information, if it were fed back to the police, would let them know at least this van is still worth looking for. It's still in Saskatoon,' said Medbh English.

English and her family left their jackets behind in the family change room at the Lawson Civic Centre while they changed into their swimsuits on Oct. 5 this year. The keys were taken from her husband's jacket and the van disappeared.

She said staff told her surveillance video at the pool was not working that day.

Ever since then, the family has been in the dark about the van, until the tickets started coming in from automated traffic cameras.

'Frustrating' to see stolen vehicle moving around city

After English and her husband received the tickets in the mail, they contacted prosecutors and were told they will not have to pay for any of them.

English said police only found out where her van had been spotted after she made a call to officers herself.

"I'm not entirely surprised, but to know it's being picked up by these other systems and not meshed with police, it's frustrating," English said.

Information not shared with police

Saskatoon police said information about stolen vehicles must be manually entered into the computer systems and changes on an hourly basis.

Saskatoon Police Staff Sgt. A.J. Chevli says police would 'absolutely' like to be flagged when parking enforcement cameras catch licence plates of stolen vehicles. (Credit: @crue401/Twitter)

Parking enforcement plate-recognition cameras do not currently track stolen vehicles, according to city officials, nor is that information shared in real-time with police.

But getting that information would certainly help, said Staff Sgt. A.J. Chevli, whose economic crime unit takes several reports of stolen vehicles every day.

"That information would be critical in recovering vehicles sooner," he said "It would make it that much harder for the person who stole the vehicle to come back to it."

Chevli said getting those real-time reports of stolen vehicle locations from parking enforcement comes with other benefits as well, including reducing costs and victimization, and increasing public safety.