Gold medal returned to paralympian

A gold medal that was stolen last weekend from a Toronto athlete has been returned to its owner, Paul Rosen, goalie for the Canadian National Men's Sledge hockey team.

He and his team members won the medal last year at the Paralympic Winter Games in Turin, Italy.

Rosen said his medal disappeared during an autograph signing at a charity event, held Jan. 13 at Toronto's Downsview Park.

Hours later, there was a public plea to the thief from Don Cherry of Hockey Night in Canada on behalf of the paralympian.

"They'llbe no questions asked. Put it in the mail box and it'll be returned to Paul," he said during the broadcast. "If you don't put it in the mail box, you're a rat.And anyone that knows about it, who took it, and doesn't do anything about it is a rat."

The scolding seemed to work.The medal was dropped into a mailbox not far from the autograph signing. On Saturday,policehanded it back to Rosen.

The athlete, wholost a leg to an infection eight years ago and took up sledge hockey, said he wanted to thank whoever returned the medal, butadded stealing is a "cowardly thing to do."

"Learn from this. Go out and be a better person and achieve greatness on your own."

He said the ordeal is not going to stop him from sharing his gold medal with the public.

"I won it at 46 years old. It's a Canadian medal. It's not my medal … and I am going to let kids hold it and touch it and take pictures of it."