Simplest solution is often the most correct. However, according to the article, he was actually in jail at the time. So it’s possible they are the fence, but I suspect someone else actually stole it. Interesting nevertheless.

When I worked in the Arctic (mineral exploration), someone from the small community we were staging in broke into our helicopter and stole the emergency kit one night. Without it we were grounded. We put out a “reward for return, no questions asked” and got it back a few hours later by someone who “found it on the side of the road”. We didn’t pursue legal action, because doing so would mean the next time something like this happened in the community, we couldn’t offer a reward and expect it to work. Conversely, we probably encouraged them to do it again. Game theory is weird.